Sonic Heroes 2
by comicfan616
Summary: RE-UPLOADED. Eggmans' brewing trouble agin, but Sonic and the rest aren't available. Time for new heroes to step into the fray.
1. Prologue

**Because of certain action taken against this story due to the OC by review (which I don't blame any of you for, BTW), I've had to re-upload this story. Luckily I was able to get all the teams figured out, so this story is still on. But please see my profile for more details.**

**Disclaimer: I am making no claim to own the rights to these (and future) characters.**

* * *

**Sonic Heroes 2**

**Prologue**

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles ran through the halls of Eggman's base. Turrets and robots were everywhere, but with the team's combined efforts, the robots were lucky to even see one of them before they were destroyed. From the ceiling, Tails threw down small explosives that attached to some of the turrets. The explosives activated about three seconds after they were attached, allowing Tails to get away easily before they went off. Knuckles took a more direct approach with the robots and weapons, preferring to just use straight-up punches. With his strength, putting his targets out of commission was no trouble. Sonic used successive homing attacks to knock over the robots he was dealing with. A tried and true method, Sonic believed.

Finally, every last robot and turret was destroyed. As they expected, a door at the end of the hall finally opened. Without any robots to keep it closed, Team Sonic could finally confront Eggman, along with their friends who, if the operation was coordinated right, were just coming in as well.

Sonic grabbed his friends and charged through the doorway. As expected, the others had made their way in too, almost at the same time Sonic did. Ever since the last encounter with Metal Sonic, most Mobians had referred to the entire group as the Sonic Heroes. Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails made up the faction called Team Sonic, due to the fame the hedgehog had gained throughout the years. To Sonic's left was Team Dark, consisting of his supposed clone Shadow, jewel thief Rouge, and Eggman defector E-123, commonly called Omega. The name referred to the team's dark origins. Team Rose, to Sonic's right, was headed by Amy, whose last name and leadership contributed to the team name, and also consisted of Big, Cream, and her chao friend Cheese. The last group, directly in front of Sonic, was Team Chatoix of the Chaotix Detective Agency, led by Vector and his employees Espio and Charmy. The only one missing from the room was who they had come to see.

"Espio," Vector said, "are you sure this is Eggman's control center?"

"I didn't sneak into the surveillance room just to goof it up," Espio replied harshly.

"Life-energy scans indicate that target Dr. Eggman has frequented this room often in the past," Omega stated.

"So, where is he?" Amy asked.

"I don't know," Sonic said, "but I'll bet he's up to no good. He never is."

"An astute observation, hedgehog," Eggman's voice said. It seemed to come from a PA system. Suddenly, several robotic limbs with claws detached from the ceiling and thrust themselves at the Sonic Heroes. Everyone scattered, but Big, being the largest and slowest, was immediately caught.

"Heeeey!" Big shouted. "Someone get me down from here!"

"Hang on, Mr. Big!" Cream and Cheese flew up and landed on the joint between the arm and the claw. They tried to pull it up, but another claw approached and grabbed Cream. Cheese flew after her, but a laser fired and shot him down. When he landed on the ground, a claw holding a small cage came up to him and placed it over the chao.

"That's it!" Amy said. She reached behind her back and pulled out her infamous hammer. She held it above her head, ready to swing at the nearest object, but as she approached the arm that carried Big, she found she was unable to move it. She was soon lifted up, a claw holding on to her hammer. The claw flipped Amy into the air, and when she came down, the claw had a hold of her body instead.

Meanwhile, Rouge, Shadow, and Omega were running around the control center trying to avoid the arms.

"Shadow!" Rouge shouted. "You think you can warp us out of here?"

"Not without a Chaos Emerald," Shadow answered.

Rouge scanned the area and saw something shine for a split second. Her thieving instincts knew what it was. "There!" she shouted. Shadow immediately sped off in the direction Rouge pointed.

Omega stopped and held his arms up. "I will assist you in keeping the arms away, Shadow." His hands became automatic rifles and started shooting at the limbs reaching for Shadow. One of the limbs turned away and focused on Omega. Omega's arms shifted into flamethrowers and spewed flames of intense heat at it. Still the limb continued and finally grabbed Omega, keeping his arms by his sides.

"Hey!" Rouge shouted. "Let go of him!" she flew up to the arm and started kicking, only to be grabbed herself by another arm.

"Don't worry," Shadow said. "That Chaos Emerald's within my grasp!" He continued running and swiped the Emerald in one fluid motion. "Chaos Control!" he shouted. But the Emerald didn't glow, and time still seemed to flow regularly.

"You didn't think I'd just leave the real Chaos Emerald just lying around, did you?" Eggman's voice taunted. An arm grabbed Shadow and he dropped the Emerald in surprise. The gem shattered upon hitting the floor.

Team Chaotix was busy avoiding the arms and keeping them away. "Espio!" Vector yelled. "Try to find the off switch!" Espio nodded, closed his eyes, concentrated, and disappeared from sight. Vector heard some footsteps walk away from them. Suddenly, a claw appeared and grabbed at the air. The claw lifted itself and Espio's camouflage wore off, showing him to be in the claw's clutch.

"A nice try, but not unexpected," Eggman said through the speakers. "You see, I've fitted these arms with heat sensor technology. Even if you are cold blooded, you still have a heat signature of some kind. Never let it be said I'm unprepared."

"Now what?" Vector thought despondently.

"How about Vector Sneeze?" Charmy said excitedly.

"Guess it's better than nothing," Vector replied. "Hop on kid!" Charmy flew up to Vector's nose and wiggled around. Vector started feeling the familiar sensation and sneezed loudly, launching Charmy toward Epsio.

"I'm coming for ya', Espio!" Charmy said.

"Wrong!" A claw suddenly came out of nowhere and grabbed Charmy. "You're staying right there," Eggman said.

"Why don't you come out and fight, you coward?" Vector yelled.

"Because I remember what happened the last time we met," Eggman answered. Vector was so busy being angry, he never noticed the claw behind him.

"Not my fault you couldn't pay," he growled as he was lifted up.

Team Sonic tried getting one of the doors open while avoiding the arms as much as possible. Every door they tried, however, wouldn't open. Even Tails' explosives did nothing. He was about to pull out a few more for another try when he felt himself being grabbed.

"Sonic!" he yelled. "Help me!"

"Hang on, Tails!" Sonic called back. "Knuckles, how's your throwing arm?"

"Which one you want?" Knuckles said with a smile as he held up both. Sonic immediately rolled into a ball and let Knuckles pick him up. "Take this!" He threw Sonic, who started bouncing around the room, trying to hit the claw Tails was in as well as the others. After a few seconds of fruitless ricochets, he finally was heading for Tails when he suddenly stopped.

"Hope you all enjoyed the ride," Eggman said. Sonic uncurled himself and noticed that he too was caught. He looked down to find Knuckles, but saw that he was with everyone else, in a claw of his own. The claws turned everyone toward the largest computer screen in the room. The screen flipped on and Eggman's mustached face appeared. "I hope you're not too disoriented, especially you, Sonic. If you really want to know how I captured the fastest thing alive, I had the computer run a quick trajectory on your path and predict where you would end up."

"Congratulations, Eggy," Sonic said. "This will be great on a t-shirt. 'I Caught Sonic the Hedgehog, and All I Got Was this Lousy Insult.'"

Eggman just ignored him. "Now, I suppose you're all wondering why I called this meeting today. To you, it was to get this Chaos Emerald," Eggman held the Emerald so they could all see it, "to prevent me from creating the ultimate weapon. What you do not know is that the weapon was already created more than two thousand years ago. This Chaos Emerald, while genuine, is not part of the weapon at all."

"You lured us here, then," Shadow responded. He seemed especially annoyed, supposedly because he had used a fake Emerald.

"You would be correct," Eggman affirmed. "I only used this Emerald to make certain you would come here."

"So what do you want with us?" Knuckles asked. Suddenly, the arms holding the Sonic Heroes separated to three different corners of the room, each where a cage rested: Sonic, Shadow, Amy, and Espio were put in one cage; Knuckles, Omega, Big, and Vector in another; and Tails, Rouge, Cream, and Charmy occupied the last one.

"Just to get you all out of the way," Eggman said. "Please note," he went on, "each cage has been tempered with a strong metal alloy that prevents even your strongest abilities from harming it. Also, you will notice how I have kept you separate from your respective teammates, so as to keep you all from working together effectively."

"What about Cheese?" Cream shouted. The chao was still in his own little cage on the floor. One of the claws came down, grasped the cage, and lifted it away.

"I'll have need of this little one," Eggman answered. "Don't worry, it won't be harmed… much." Cream sat back and started crying.

"Now, while I would like to gloat about my victory," Eggman continued, "I have a weapon to power up and a world to dominate. And the best part is… I won't have to worry about being thwarted. Because after all, without the Sonic Heroes, who will save the day?"

* * *

**This is CF signing out.**


	2. Team Adventurers: Garden Scape

**Once again, here's the first chapter of OCs. The credit for these characters goes to me and my brothers. I've had this chapter in my computer for a while, and I think its about time to bring it out.**

**Also (since I tend to picture this as a video game), just to improve the experience, if you so desire, I'll post themes from various Sonic levels that may enhance the atmosphere. These were carefully handpicked, so enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog is not in anyway owned by me.**

**Level Theme: Spagonia Rooftop Run (Day) (Sonic Unleashed)**

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**Team Adventurers—Garden Scape**

The room was dark. The only light inside it was what managed to come through the blind-covered windows. There was only one piece of furniture in that room: a small, round ottoman. Sitting on that ottoman, legs crossed, was a light blue wolf, Wiz. His eyes were closed and his pose suggested he was meditating. He was completely relaxed.

Suddenly, his eyes snapped open. "What was that?" he asked himself. "Something is disturbing the supernatural plane. But what?" He stood up and walked out of the room.

He walked down the hall until he reached a door, behind which were noises that sounded like someone fighting. He opened it and saw his two friends using their training simulator.

One of the two, Lee, was an orange raccoon who wore a black vest over his small build. He was holding off his virtual opponents with his nimble movements and an orange-and-black staff taller than himself. The other, Glide, was a cardinal wearing a flight helmet, fighting his opponents by slashing his wings.

Wiz held his hand up and an orb of purple energy appeared around it. Suddenly, the holographic enemies vanished and a computerized voice intoned, "Training session has been terminated. Training session has been terminated."

Lee turned back to find the source. "Oh come on, Wiz," he complained. "I was just about to reach a new record."

"I understand your need to train—" Wiz started.

"You?" Lee interrupted. "The one who just spends all day cooped up in his room sleeping?"

Wiz gave Lee a look. "Come here," he said, waving his hand toward himself. Lee looked at Glide, who backed away a bit. Lee just sighed and walked over to Wiz. "Strike me," Wiz said with little emotion.

Lee looked amazed for a small moment and said, "Ah, why not? Should be fun." He raised his staff, ready to hit Wiz. The wolf raised his hand and it glowed with the same purple energy. Lee lowered the staff, but found himself unable to bring it down too far before he was suddenly flung back. He landed on the wall and fell to the floor.

"What you call 'sleeping,'" Wiz said, "I call honing my attention to keep my magic at its most effective. And believe me when I say _that_ was effective."

"Sure, sure," Lee said. He squeezed the middle part of his staff and it collapsed to just barely a foot.

"In fact," Wiz said, "that's what I wanted to talk to you about. Trust me, I wouldn't have stopped your training session unless it was this important."

"What's up?" Glide asked.

"While I was meditating," Wiz answered, "I felt a strange disturbance, like—"

"—Millions of voices that cried out in terror were suddenly silenced?" Lee finished jokingly.

Wiz was not amused. "I can send you back to that wall if that's what you want." Lee looked away. "What I felt was an abnormal amount of supernatural forces being utilized all at once."

"Come again?" Lee asked.

Glide clarified for Wiz, "Someone's using a lot of magic."

"Oh, okay," Lee said. "And this is important to us how?"

"I'm not sure," Wiz replied. Lee just sighed in exasperation. Before the raccoon could come up with a snide remark, Wiz continued, "But I want to know about this magic: what is it being used for? And perhaps just as important, who is using it?" The other two just stared at each other blankly. "Come on, you two," Wiz said. "We call ourselves adventurers, right?" He paused. "Think of this as an adventure."

"I'm not saying it isn't," Lee said. "But a quest just to sate your curiosity? Doesn't sound too exciting."

"Tell you what," Wiz said. "If the magic is being used for nothing of concern to us, this month's chili dog bill is on me."

"Why are we still here, guys?" Lee said in a suddenly more jovial tone. "We got magic to find." He then started running out of the room.

Wiz and Glide stared at each other. "If it makes you feel any better," Glide said, "you had me at 'adventure.'"

* * *

Wiz led the team to a large field of flowers and grass. The only change in elevation was the occasional hill. Everyone looked over the area carefully.

"So what are we doing here, again?" Lee asked. "Is this where the magic is supposed to be?"

"It's not that simple," Wiz replied. His eyes were closed and his arms were crossed over his chest, his hands facing outward with purple energy. "In order to better understand the nature of the magic, we have to locate its origins. And unfortunately, that origin is scattered across Mobius."

"This is going to take a while, huh?" Lee said.

"Look at it this way," Glide said. "It's like a road trip."

"That way," Wiz said suddenly. His eyes were now open and he pointed in front of them. "Our first clue is in that direction. Lee, you're on point. With your speed, you should be able to see anything suspicious ahead of us until we catch up. Try not to do anything stupid until then."

"In other words," Glide added, "don't do anything."

"Har, har," Lee said sarcastically. He ran off, with the others following behind at a slower pace.

Lee kept an eye out for anything that might merit Wiz's attention. Wherever he looked, he saw nothing. He was about to stop and ask Wiz if he was sure of his directions when he stopped for a different reason: in front of him, there were red robots with spherical bodies. Lee recognized them instantly.

"Eggman's robots," he whispered. "Well, that's unfortunate," he said as he reached behind his back. "Now Wiz won't be paying for those dogs." He pulled out the small metal rod and squeezed it. The rod stretched out into his battle staff.

Lee charged at the robots. He struck one of them and it exploded. The other bots turned to look at what had happened. Lee was already jumping toward his next target, staff ready. Every robot he headed toward was struck by his staff. Finally he landed on the ground.

One of the robots Lee didn't destroy yet pointed its arm at him. Lee turned, ready to attack. Suddenly, the robot exploded. The smoke cleared and Lee could see Wiz holding his hand up; the purple energy surrounding his hand was dissipating.

"What happened to 'don't do anything'?" Wiz asked.

"I was handling it just fine, thank—" Lee started, but he was interrupted by the only robot left, behind Wiz and pointing its arm at him. "Look out!" Suddenly, something red crashed into it at a fast pace.

Glide had his wings crossed in front of him, and when he struck, he spread them out. It was this motion that took care of the robot.

"Oh, yeah!" he shouted. "Crimson Cross one, Egg-bot none!"

Wiz looked around at the scene of mechanical carnage. "Looks like we found your magic user, Wiz," Lee said.

"It's too soon to say," Wiz pointed out. "For all we know, this was just a reconnaissance group."

"Uh…" Lee started.

"They were probably just checking the area," Glide explained.

"How much you wanna put on that?" Lee asked.

"Not much, I'm afraid," Wiz replied. "But it's still a possibility. For now, I say we stick together."

"Won't be a problem, Wiz" Glide said. The others turned to him; he had the goggles on his flight cap over his eyes. He looked like he was focusing them. "Looks like Lee's shenanigans attracted a little attention."

"That so?" Wiz asked, glancing at Lee. Lee just turned away. "Okay, I'll take over as lead man. Try to take them out fast, but don't lose sight of our goal. Just keep going that way." He pointed in the direction the robots were coming from.

"Sounds like fun," Lee said, holding his staff ready.

"Time to kick some chassis," Glide said. Everyone ran in and started attacking. Wiz hit many of the robots using a purple magic beam; the bots exploded on impact. Lee swung his staff almost wildly at any robot next to him.

"Whoo!" he yelled. "I don't think I even have this high a score on the simulator."

Glide slashed another bot. "That means there are a lot of them," he said, "and more might be on the way."

"We can't keep this up," Wiz said. His fist became surrounded in magic and he punched the robot in front of him, knocking it away from him. "Lee! Glide! Brace yourselves!" He held up his hands as they charged with power.

Lee and Glide felt themselves being lifted up in purple spheres of their own. Wiz came between the two, his hands still held up. Wiz lowered his hands and the spheres flew at the robots with their occupants still inside. Lee quickly moved his staff in front of the robots he flew into, while Glide did the same with his wings. All the robots were destroyed.

Lee and Glide landed on the ground. "That oughta show them," Lee said confidently.

"It's just a temporary respite," Wiz pointed out. "We have to keep moving." He ran ahead, almost leaving the other two behind.

Everyone kept running until they reached a large lake. It was too wide to swim across and too long to simply walk around.

"Now what?" Glide asked.

"Well," Lee suggested, "Wiz can carry us across."

"Not with that kind of distance," Wiz argued. "Even magic has its limits." He looked around the shoreline. He saw a large rock standing just on the water's edge. "Here's an idea," he said as he walked over to the rock. Glide followed him. Neither one noticed a light blinking on Lee's staff.

Wiz stood in front of the rock. He held up his hands and they started to radiate magic. He pushed his hands forward.

Nothing happened; the rock still stood there. Wiz tried again, but still no results.

"Hey, Wiz," Lee said. "Would now be a bad time to tell you that my staff picked up traces of that magite stuff?"

Wiz turned to him with an exasperated look. "Now you tell me? You know my magic is ineffective against it."

"You didn't ask," Lee said playfully.

"More likely," Glide said, "you just wanted to watch him fail."

Lee just ignored him as he said, "Okay, I'll handle this." He stood in front of the rock with his staff ready. He charged in and struck the rock, which exploded and flew toward the water. Pieces of the rock fell in the lake and many of them poked out of the water. "Score one for anti-magite technology."

"Rub it in any further," Wiz said, losing his patience, "and you'll be joining that rock. Besides, we still have the issue of getting across." Everyone noticed that the fragments that could potentially act as platforms across the lake were rather far apart, to the point where jumping was not the best course of action.

"Can't you just carry us over to each platform?" Lee asked.

"Not without touching the magite," Wiz answered. "It would sap my powers as long as I remain in contact and even for a few seconds after, depending on how long I stay on it."

"Then I say we go with 'Plan G'," Glide said, flapping his wings to hover over the ground. "'Plan Glide'."

"Better than nothing," Wiz said. Glide flew over Wiz, who grabbed his legs.

"Hey!" Lee interjected. "Why do you get the top?"

"You remember what I said about being in contact with the magite?" Wiz argued. Lee just remained silent as Wiz and Glide floated over him. He took Wiz's legs and Glide started flying toward the first platform.

The flight from shore to the first fragment had been a smooth one. However, by the time they reached the second, trouble came along once again; several flying robots were closing in on the group.

"Any ideas?" Lee asked.

"Yeah," Glide said, "you're up." Before Lee could ask, he felt himself being swung. He lost his grip on Wiz and flew toward one of the bots. Reacting quickly, he pulled his staff out and struck the bot. He bounced off his target and hit another close to him.

Glide also threw Wiz out into the skirmish. Wiz landed on one of the robots and started shooting beams of magic at some of the others surrounding him. He then lit his hand with a purple orb and slammed his fist into the robot he stood on; it cracked almost instantly. Wiz jumped back to Glide as the bot exploded. Lee was done on his end as well and jumped so that he was under Wiz.

"Well, that was fun," Lee said.

"Let's just get across," Wiz said. "We're getting close."

Glide traveled the rest of the way across the lake, stopping at each of the platforms to catch his breath. Finally, they all reached solid ground. They continued on foot until they saw something interesting. It looked like a set of ruins or a shrine. Most of the structures had decayed to the point where no one could tell what they originally were.

"Is this it?" Lee asked.

"There is a strong resonance with the magic I've been sensing," Wiz replied, "so yes."

"But there's nothing here," Lee argued. Suddenly, the ground began to shake.

"You said what?" Glide yelled over the rumbling. Many of the stones on the ground started tumbling over and coming together. Eventually, they finally formed a coherent shape. It was humanoid, taller than the entire group combined. In one hand, it held a long, thin stone, almost like a staff.

"I thought staffs were my shtick," Lee said. The figure started making a noise, almost like it was trying to say something. "Translation please?" Lee asked rhetorically.

Wiz already had his magic-empowered hand on his head. "He's saying something like, 'Earth Guardian activated. Mission: protect sanctuary from further defilement.'"

"Got your work cut out for you, pal," Lee quipped. "Let's face it, it don't get any more defiled than this." Suddenly the stone figure charged Lee with its staff ready to strike. Lee just barely blocked it with his own. "I say again: staffs are my shtick."

The guardian pulled its staff back and tried to hit Lee with the end. Suddenly, a blast of purple energy struck it, causing it to veer off course. "Sorry," Wiz said, "but knocking sense into Lee is _my_ 'shtick'."

"Don't tell me you'll start sprouting wings now," Glide said to it. He crossed his wings and slashed them across the guardian.

"Color me surprised," Lee said to Wiz. "I figured you would have gone with just talking it out, since that's the opposite of what I'd do."

"It's the ancient equivalent of a robot," Wiz replied. "No amount of diplomacy will work." He fired another beam at the guardian. "I have an idea. How much do you want to take out that staff?"

"Let's face it," Lee said as he blocked another blow, "there's a little thing called copyright infringement."

"Then I hope you like getting dizzy," Wiz said. He held his hand up and surrounded Lee in a purple orb. The orb began to spin in several directions really fast. Lee held his staff perpendicular to his own body and felt Wiz lift him up. He was flung toward the guardian and felt his staff strike the rock staff. The multiple strikes caused the staff to shatter.

"Wiz!" Lee yelled. "Just throw me! I'm pretty sure one shot should do the trick!" Wiz stopped spinning Lee and moved his arm forward forcefully. Lee flew at the guardian and swung his staff at the chest just as he came in close. With no staff of its own, the guardian had no way to defend itself. Lee's staff hit and he bounced back to the ground

The stone warrior just stood there for a few seconds. Then one of the rocks composing his body fell off. The rest of the rocks soon followed until the only thing remaining of the guardian was a pile of rubble.

"Oh yeah!" Lee shouted. "He's stone cold now." Glide just glared at him. "Oh, come on," Lee said, "that was funny."

"So's molting," Glide said.

"We'll worry about Lee's bad jokes later," Wiz said. "Right now, let's look around. The area's source of magic is around here."

"Well, I don't see anything," Lee said, "just a few stone pillars and columns. Heck, some of them have holes and dents in them."

"Here's a weird one," Glide said suddenly.

"Weird as in…?" Wiz asked.

"There's some sort of dent in this wall," Glide explained, indicating the wall he stood in front of. "But it looks like it was carved." While the indent had no definable shape, it did look very precise.

"This may be what we're looking for," Wiz muttered thoughtfully.

"Huh?" Lee exclaimed. "Wow, talk about not being able to tell a clue from a hole in the wall." Wiz said nothing but held his hand up. His hand began to glow, followed by the indent. Something began to appear inside it. It looked like an outline of a piece of a tablet.

"What is that?" Lee asked.

"It's my revealing spell," Wiz explained. "It shows me what was once here."

"You mean someone took something from here?" Glide asked.

"That so-called Earth Guardian said something about a prior 'defilement'," Wiz pointed out. "Maybe this was it."

"So what the heck is this thing?" Lee asked.

"I'm not sure, really," Wiz admitted. "It looks like there's something written here, but unless we find the other pieces of the whole tablet, we won't know what it says. Glide," Wiz turned to his friend. "Snap a shot, will you?" Glide lowered his goggles over his eyes, turned to the tablet outline, and spun the lenses.

"Got it," he said. The image of the tablet disappeared.

"So where are the other pieces supposed to be?" Lee asked.

"I'll tell you in a bit," Wiz said as he meditated once more.

* * *

**Credit:  
Wiz the Wolf: comicfan616  
Lee the Raccoon: Nightfall00  
Glide the Cardinal: pokemonmaster111**

**Lineup:  
Team Adventurers:  
Speed: Lee the Raccoon  
Power: Wiz the Wolf  
Flight: Glide the Cardinal**

**That should do it for now. I'll upload more chapters when I can. Also, to any new guys out there, I've almost created all the teams I need, but I need two more flight characters. So, help a guy out, huh?**

**This is CF signing out.**


	3. Team Merc: Garden Scape

**Welcome to the next chapter of Sonic Heroes 2. For those of you who decided to skip the first two chapters, this story had to be reuploaded, so check out my profile for an important message. Now that that's done...**

**Disclaimer: All characters involved in this story are not my sole property, especially the OCs.**

**Level theme: Spagonia Rooftop Run (Day) (Sonic Unleashed)**

* * *

**Team Merc—Garden Scape**

A lone female fox was lying on the couch, trying to sleep. She looked like she was in her early teenage years. Her fur was a bright orange, but her hair was dyed black, and she wore a pink tank top and blue capris. She would almost be cute if not for the two guns she kept on her belt.

She was relaxed until she heard a chiming sound. She recognized it as coming from the computer. "Hey, Dragonbreath, could you get that?" she yelled.

A rabbit, a few years older than her and wearing a trenchcoat, came down the stairs. As he neared the computer, he turned to the fox. "I told you not to call me that," he said as he rubbed his neck. "For the last time, it's Jacob… Kaitlyn." Without breaking her relaxed pose, nor opening her eyes, the fox quickly grabbed one of her guns and pointed it at Jacob. The rabbit didn't flinch.

"Say again?" she asked.

"KT," Jacob answered calmly, but with a hint of disdain. KT put the gun away just as smoothly as when she brought it out. "Hypocritical much?" he whispered. He sat down at the computer and brought up the e-mail that they just received.

Jacob looked at it and said, "Looks like a new job."

KT stretched her limbs and sat up on the couch, fully awake. "What do we got this time?" she asked.

"It actually comes from the Mobian Central Government," Jacob answered. "Looks like Eggman's robots have been seen everywhere."

"Somebody stop the presses," KT said sarcastically. "Isn't this, what, the third time this month?"

"That's the thing," Jacob said; "it's gone on longer than it should have. Normally, Sonic the Hedgehog takes care of this stuff, but no one's heard from him for a while now. They tried calling the Chaotix earlier, but they're not there, either."

"Glad to know we placed _some_where on the list," KT said.

"We got nothing better to do," Jacob continued. "You get Red while I send a reply."

KT stood up and went outside the house. After she was several feet from the door, she turned around and looked up. She saw a grey lynx wearing a purple ninja uniform and a wide, cone-shaped straw hat, sitting on the roof in meditation.

KT grabbed one of her guns and fired it in the air. The sound reverberated in an echo. But the lynx didn't flinch. "Go figure," KT said to herself. "Hey, Red," she shouted, "wake up! We got a job to do!"

The lynx's eyes opened. He stood up and jumped off the roof and flipped over twice before landing on his feet.

"Show off," KT said dismissively. Jacob came out soon after.

Red turned to him and asked, "What is our mission, Dragon Warrior?"

"Could you please not do that?" Jacob asked as he rubbed his neck. "It's bad enough when KT does it, but you're supposed to be better than this."

"What's wrong with being part dragon?" KT asked.

"Essentially nothing," Jacob replied, "but when people consider it your defining trait…"

"My apologies, then," Red responded.

"I'll explain the job on the way," Jacob said. "Right now, we're going to the Garden Scape."

* * *

The three mercenaries looked out at the plains. It looked peaceful. But everyone knew otherwise.

"So, what must we do?" Red asked.

"We take out as many of the robots as we can," Jacob answered. "According to our client, this is where a lot of bots have been found. There have also been reports of Dr. Eggman himself in the area."

"So basically," KT started, "take out the garbage and then the garbage man?"

"If we find him," Jacob said. "But yes."

"Then let us not waste time," Red said. He pulled a katana from his back and held it in front of him. "Now, my friends, to battle!"

Everyone ran forward with Red out in front. It didn't take long to find their first wave of robots. Red jumped and landed on top of one of them, thrusting his katana into its chassis. The robot fell from a lack of power as Red jumped to the next bot.

KT, meanwhile, was surrounded on all sides by robots, ready to attack her. "All of you ganging up on li'l ol' me?" she said. "You should know better." Suddenly, she pulled out her guns and began shooting; each of the bots exploded with only one shot. "After all," she continued, "I'm the girl who out-gunned G.U.N."

Jacob was also by himself as more robots closed in. "Pitiful," he said. He bent down and light started to shine from under his coat, revealing two slits in the back. The light that flowed from the slits began to take shape, ultimately revealing dragon-like wings. He shot upright and screamed, not so much out of pain, but more like a battle cry. He opened his mouth and a stream of fire came from it. He spun around and the fire touched all the robots, destroying them.

Soon, all the robots were destroyed. Red put away his sword and said, "That was simple enough."

"Glad you think so," Jacob returned, "because this is only the first wave. Remember, our objective is Eggman."

"I say when this is done, we get paid by the bot," KT said, brandishing her gun.

"Is that really all you care about?" Red asked as they continued.

"Hey, this is a mercenary team," KT answered, "as in 'guns for hire.' You should know that by now. I mean, why do you stick around if you're not interested in the money?"

"I have my reasons, Ms. Thorne," Red said.

"I'd pull my gun on you," KT said, "but that'd just be a waste of ammo."

"Less chatter, you two," Jacob said. "We got more bots incoming." Everyone looked ahead and saw more Egg-bots running toward them.

Red made the first move by throwing some shuriken. They flew fast enough that they pierced the robots' chassis. KT fired her guns at the bots just as they came very close to the team. Jacob used his draconian powers to destroy several others. Like the first wave, these robots were soon decimated.

The group stopped at a river, probably the most turbulent part of the otherwise-peaceful setting. "KT," Jacob said, "where does this river go?"

KT reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded handheld device. She opened it and a holographic map of the region appeared in front of them. She pressed a few buttons and a blue line appeared, outlining the path of the river.

Jacob looked at the map and thought carefully. "If our client is to be believed, Eggman was last sighted around… here." He pointed to a spot on the map just off the edge of the river. "If we ride this river, we can make good time."

"Pretty big 'if' there, Draco," KT said. She ignored Jacob's glare. "Have you seen the rapids? I mean, what are we, salmon?"

"Do you have a better way?" Jacob asked.

"Considering your way could kill us, anything's a better option."

"But if we catch up with Eggman now, we…" Jacob stopped and looked around. "Wait a second; where's Red?" Suddenly, a wooden log crashed beside them, startling them both. They stared at the log and then at Red, who brought it.

"It was the only suitable tree I could find," he said. "But it should suit our transportation needs well."

The other two looked at each other. "Well," KT said, "I did say 'anything's a better option.'" She and Jacob climbed on top of the log. Red stayed on the side and began to push it to the riverside. Once it was almost over the water, he too jumped onto it, causing it to fall into the water. Everyone held on tight until they could straighten themselves. From there, the ride down the river was relatively smooth.

However, after about half a minute of staying on, Jacob could see something ahead of them: flying robots. "KT," he yelled, "how's your aim?"

"Here?" she yelled back. "Not good. But I may have a better idea. Just promise you'll forgive me after this."

"Forgive you?" Jacob asked. "For wha-AAAAAH!" At that moment, KT kicked Jacob toward the robots. Jacob barely grabbed one of them. He quickly blasted the other robot with his flames before turning on the one he was holding. The log was passing by him and he jumped onto it before the bot exploded.

As soon as he righted himself, he turned to KT with an angry look in his eye. "I was on a time crunch," she said.

"Whatever," Jacob said. "Just tell me where we are." KT took out her device again and opened it, showing the map; there was a blue dot on the river that was slowly moving. "Looks like we're nearly there," Jacob mused.

"Then I say this is the perfect time to disembark," Red said.

"And how do we do that?" KT asked. "Getting on the river is one thing, but getting off is—"

"Just hang on and shut up," Jacob said as he lifted KT by her arms, his dragon wings carrying him above her. He rose until Red was able to grab her legs; once they were all hooked up, Jacob lifted off the log completely and flew to the edge of the river. When they landed, they let go of each other and continued toward where they thought Eggman would be.

They were still blocked by robots, this time more numerous than before. "You think this is it?" KT asked.

"It has to be," Jacob answered. "So many robots around here, where else would Eggman be?"

"Then let us finish this quickly," Red said, "lest we lose our quarry."

"You want quick?" KT said. "Then get out of the way." Her teammates jumped and she suddenly started spinning and shooting. When she stopped, there wasn't a single robot standing. The other two landed just before she stopped.

"Let's move, people," Jacob ordered. Everyone ran as fast as they could in the direction the robots came from, Red being the furthest ahead due to his speed.

Soon, they saw a robot that looked similar to the ones they fought before; however, this one was bigger—easily three times bigger than the other bots—colored silver as opposed to red, and someone seemed to be sitting inside it.

"Halt, fiend!" Red called out. He stopped and held his katana in an offensive stance. The man inside the robot turned toward the sound, revealing his large, trademark mustache to Red. "Dr. Eggman, I assume?"

"What's it to you?" Eggman said. "You wouldn't happen to have something to do with messing up my army here, would you?"

"And others," KT said as she stopped next to Red, holding her guns at her sides. Jacob also showed up, dragon wings visible.

"And who might you be?" Eggman asked.

Red spoke first. "I am Red Moon, proud warrior of the Raiju Ninja Clan."

KT twirled her guns around her fingers. "Name's KT. Long story short, you don't want to mess with me."

Jacob flapped his wings. "I am Jacob Shecko, part dragon on my father's side and leader of this team." He pointed at Eggman. "And we were hired to bring you down."

Eggman simply lowered his face into his palm. "Typical, even when Sonic is out of the way, I can't get a break."

"Out of the way?" Red whispered. "What have you done with Sonic?" he demanded.

"Like it'll matter after I'm done with you," Eggman replied. He started typing on a console in front of him. "Egg Mech, ready for battle!" The arms on the mech raised themselves, almost as though the machine was flexing its muscles.

"We shall see who is done with whom," Red said. Without warning, KT started shooting at the mech. However, the armor seemed to be much stronger than the robots they had faced previously, so the bullets bounced off.

"Darn," KT muttered. Jacob then tried by launching a fireball at the mech. Eggman brought the arms to the front and put the hands in front of the fire. The flame disappeared the moment it touched the metal.

"Well, that was useless," KT said. She turned to Red. "Hey, ninja boy, a little help here?"

"Distract him," Red replied. "Get on either side and attack with everything you have." Jacob and KT were unsure of Red's plan, but decided it was probably better than what they were doing now. As instructed, they both ran to Egg Mech and stood on opposite sides; KT started firing her guns while Jacob continued to breathe fire. Eggman, meanwhile, positioned the mech's hands to block both shots.

"You three are wasting your time," Eggman said. "nothing can break through my machine's armor."

"Funny," KT said, "I only count two of us." Eggman realized she was right and looked around for Red. Suddenly, Red appeared seemingly out of nowhere and stuck his katana into a glowing spot on the mech's chest area: its central power source.

"Now, my friends!" Red shouted. "Attack this spot!" Jacob and KT pulled away from their current positions and stopped in front of the Egg Mech. KT started firing her guns rapidly and Jacob breathed a continuous stream of fire; both attacks were aimed where Red's katana was placed.

"Glowing weak spots," KT said to herself. "Why do we never think of that?"

"We can worry about poor design choice later," Red said as he threw a shuriken. The star struck and the mech made sounds that could be described as either shutting down or close to exploding.

Eggman looked frantic for a few seconds and said, "Well, while I would like to stay here and take this defeat graciously, I have better things to do, places to go." He typed into his control panel and the cockpit, really the infamous Egg Mobile, popped out of the mech and flew off, leaving the machine to explode.

Whit little time to react, KT took something out of her pocket, stuck it to the barrel of one of her guns, and fired it at the vehicle. The Egg Mobile flew away, Eggman seemingly unaware of KT's actions.

When the smoke from the explosion cleared, Red turned to KT. "A valiant effort, my friend," he said, "but, as they say, 'too little, too late."

"Oh, ye of little faith," KT replied. "That was a tracking device I stuck to Eggman's fancy car." She took out her map device and turned it on, showing a red dot flying away from the blue dot. "Now we can follow Eggman wherever he decides to go."

"Then let's get going," Jacob said. "We still have a job to do."

* * *

**Team Lineup  
Speed: Red Moon the Lynx  
Power: Kaitlyn "KT" Thorne  
Flight: Jacob Shecko**

* * *

**Hope you all enjoyed this chapter (especially those of you who can recognize your characters). Stay tuned for more**


	4. Team Hunters: Garden Scape

**Sorry for taking so long on this, guys. New job, combined with old job, it tends to put a limit on your free time. That and I was having trouble trying to figure out how to make these chapters all not-the-same. Ultimately, this I what I came up with.**

**Disclaimer: I claim no rights to the intellectual property known as ****_Sonic the Hedgehog_**** or its affiliates. I also don't claim the right to the characters mentioned herein.**

**Level Theme: Spagonia Rooftop Run (Day) (Sonic Unleashed)**

* * *

**Team Hunters—Garden Scape**

The room was covered with posters of maps of ancient civilizations, texts long since forgotten, some of the most well-known treasures from around the world, and many other similar topics. There were two chairs along one wall, each with its own occupant.

The first was a rat, Blade, his fur a mix between gray and blue. His long tail hung over the armrest, revealing a set of metal spikes implanted along it.

The other creature was a white owl named Snowy, obviously of Babylonian heritage as evidenced by a lack of wings, instead sporting arms like most of Mobius' anthropomorphic races.

"Am I the only one who feels we're in a rut?" Snowy asked.

"Trust me," Blade answered, "it's not just you."

"Then let's do something, already," a female voice said. The two turned to the third member of their group, who had just walked in from the kitchen. She was a lemur, white in color much like Snowy, wearing a purple-striped top, gold-colored shorts, and long socks, but no shoes. She was standing on tiptoe as she walked into the room, a regular quirk for her. Her black-and-white tail hung down almost to the ground, but not quite touching it. She was holding a coffee cup in her hands. She approached a clear spot on the floor and a glow appeared from her neck, revealing a necklave with a moon-shaped charm. Suddenly, a crescent appeared behind her. She sat down inside the curve and it lifted higher.

"Easier said than done, Pluto," Blade replied. "No one's come to us in weeks. I swear, does the phrase, 'We'll get in touch with you later for another search,' mean something different in the archeological community?"

"Or the private collectors," Snowy added.

"Well, I just can't stand a room full of Grumpy Guses," Pluto said.

"Oh, please," Snowy responded, "if you didn't have that cup in your hands, you'd be even more moody than we are." Pluto didn't say anything.

After a few minutes of silence, though, she spoke again. "Then how about a private hunt?" The other two looked at her. "Yeah, no contracts, no pressure, just treasure hunting for the heck of it."

"Forget it," Blade said. "I'm not going anywhere unless it puts rings in my pocket, or at least pays the bills."

"Then how about something that helps us out by solving our customer problem?" Pluto said.

"What are you talking about?" Blade asked.

"Simple. We hunt for some of the rarest treasure in the world and use that as our ad campaign. If we can get the word out that we could find the most hard-to-find stuff and that everything else is child's play, we'll need _ten_ organizers to hold all our job requests."

There was a small pause before Snowy spoke. "That may be one of the best ideas you ever had."

"Okay, fine," Blade said resignedly. "But what do we look for? I mean, before we go searching for the rarest thing on the planet, we have to know what it is first, right?" Suddenly, a sound like crashing was heard from outside, followed by a blinding light. When it subsided, Snowy was the first one out to investigate. Blade followed, albeit with a slight limp, and Pluto, still on her moon-like seat, floated out of the room as well.

It didn't take Snowy long to find what out happened; a small, red glow protruded from the ground. Snowy got closer and pulle it out of the ground before taking a good look at it: a red gemstone, about the size of his hand, cut in a stereotypical diamond shape.

"What do we got?" Pluto asked as she stopped near Snowy. He showed the stone to her and Blade as he caught up with them.

"Our treasure," Snowy said. "It's a Chaos Emerald."

"How did that get here?" Blade asked.

"Who cares?" Pluto said excitedly. "Chaos Emeralds are the ultimate treasure hunt by definition! The only one who's been able to find them all is that Sonic guy, right? If we find all those Emeralds, we'll be famous!"

"I don't know," Blade said tentatively. "Chaos Emeralds are pretty dangerous."

"You make it sound like we're actually using them," Snowy replied. "Come on, we're only using them for publicity. And after we're done with them, we'll just get rid of them, scatter them all over the place."

Blade wanted to argue, but found himself unable to come up with a suitable counterpoint. "Fine," he said. "But you do realize this won't be easy. It's not like Chaos Emeralds just fall into your lap." Snowy held up the Emerald in his hand. Blade simply whispered, "Shut up."

* * *

After a couple hours of researching possible leads, the team went to the Garden Scape. "Is this the place?" Snowy asked.

"Yep," Pluto said. "Eggman and his bots have been sighted around this area. And where Eggman is, a Chaos Emerald is never too far away."

"I still say it's faulty logic," Blade added. "But if we're going to pull this off, we might as well try whatever we can."

"Well, if you don't like it, consider this," Snowy said as he took out the Emerald they had. "Chaos Emeralds react to one another when they're close." The red Emerald was glowing faintly. "I'd say there's a good chance that something's around here."

"Okay," Blade said. "Can you tell me which way to go?"

Snowy held out the Emerald and started spinning in place. After a little while the Emerald started glowing the tiniest bit brighter. "I'm no expert," he said, "but I'm going to assume this way."

"Then let's get going," Blade said. "Snowy, you lead the way. Keep an eye out for those junk heaps Eggman calls robots." Snowy nodded and ran in the direction he indicated. He held the Emerald in front of him to make sure he was heading in the right direction. The other two followed behind him, Blade still limping along while Pluto was content to levitate on her crescent moon.

Soon, Snowy caught sight of several red, spherical forms in front of him. It didn't take long after this to figure out what they were: Eggman's robots. He could tell what they were long before he could actually make them out.

Snowy placed the Emerald in a pouch on his hip and, while still running, placed two fingers next to his beak. He started blowing softly and a sort of mist came out of it, eventually forming a small icicle. Snowy thrust his fingers forward and the icicle sped toward the robots, piercing one through the chassis. As the other bots turned to investigate, Snowy breathed again, this time, sweeping his fingers across his front, forming more icicles. Sweeping his arm again, he fired the entire wave at the bots.

More bots started coming in, and Snowy started forming more icicles. But before he could launch them, they suddenly veered to the side. Snowy turned in the direction they flew and saw that another robot had him in its sights, at least until it got hit by the ice.

Snowy turned around and saw Blade standing behind him, holding his hands out. "Next time," Snowy said, "warn me."

"I didn't have time," Blade answered.

"Fine," Snowy said, "but what about them?" He pointed to the wave of bots he originally aimed for, all now running towards them.

Suddenly, Pluto flew in seemingly from nowhere. The crescent she was sitting on suddenly snapped in two and rods grew out of the separated ends, making them both look like scythes. Pluto started whirling in the air and landed on one side of the wave. The blades of her new weapons broke through the robot armor and moved along the wave like a chainsaw. As soon as the last robot was sliced, Pluto cleanly connected the two halves and recreated the crescent. As she sat back into a resting position, she whooped in victory.

"What about them?" Blade directed to Snowy with a smug look on his face. Snowy was about to reply when he noticed one more robot advancing on them from behind Blade.

Blade noticed the look on Snowy's face and, just as the robot was about to make a grab for them, stuck his tail through it. "Something to keep in mind," he told the bot. "These spikes? Not just for show." He pulled his tail out and the robot fell. "Come on," he told the others. "We gotta keep moving. Snowy, where to?" Snowy took the Emerald out of his pouch and held it in front of him. He noticed the glow getting brighter and started leading the way again.

Snowy was out in front for most of the journey, keeping an eye on the Emerald. The path the team traveled led them into several more robots. Snowy shot several icicles at the incoming bots whenever he spotted them. However, there were sometimes more robots than available icicles. Fortunately, those that were left were taken out by the other two; Blade swiping his tail as he passed, while Pluto generally charged directly for the stragglers.

Soon the team approached a rapidly flowing river. They all stopped while Snowy held the Emerald in several directions. "Looks like the Emerald's down river," he said after a while.

"So I guess we travel along the side of the river," Blade said.

"Why can't we just ride it?" Pluto asked.

"Do you see a boat heading this way?" Blade asked.

"I see a log, does that count?" Pluto replied. The other two looked up the river and saw a log heading their way. Blade just bowed his head.

Snowy spoke up, "Well, if we're going to use it, we better do it fast."

"I'll handle it," Blade said. He stepped on the edge of the river. He held his hands out and tensed up. The water around the log began to look less turbulent. The log, which had been careening down the river, suddenly started slowing down to the point where it looked like it was merely floating on the water.

"I can't hold it much longer," Blade said. "Get on." Snowy lost no time in jumping onto the log. Pluto hovered over Blade and, lying on her front over the crescent, picked Blade up and placed him on the log. Blade started to relax a bit and the log began to pick up speed. Soon it was traveling down the river at its original pace.

"You okay, Blade?" Snowy yelled over the rapids.

"I'll be fine," Blade answered. "It may take a while, though. Using my hydrokinesis still takes a lot out of me."

"Uh, guys," Pluto interrupted, "not to change the subject, but we've got some company." She pointed to their front, where two flying robots hovered over the water toward them.

"Any ideas?" Snowy asked.

"Yeah," Blade said. "Pray I've got enough strength for this." He suddenly wrapped his tail around Snowy and threw him toward the robots. Snowy quickly shifted his body so that he crashed into the robot. Snowy ricocheted off the bot as it fell into the water. As he hung in the air, he threw an icicle at the second bot just as the log passed under him. Pluto held out one of her scythes, letting Snowy grab it before the log could speed past them.

Snowy plopped down on the log and panted. "That was close," he said. "I thought I wasn't gonna make it."

"If it makes you feel any better," Blade replied, "neither did I." Snowy looked at him apprehensively.

He instead turned to the Emerald. It started glowing much brighter. "This is it, guys!" he shouted.

"Great," Blade said. "But how do we get off? My strength still hasn't fully recovered yet."

"Simple," Pluto said. "Just grab on." She hovered over the others and leaned over the crescent, allowing Blade to grab her hands. She floated upward to allow Snowy to hold onto Blade's ankles. As soon as they were ready, Pluto's crescent lifted up and floated to the edge of the river, where everyone dismounted.

"This way guys," Snowy said as he held the Emerald in front of him. "We're getting close." Everyone ran in the direction Snowy indicated.

Soon, they reached a clearing; only grass and wildflowers as far as the eye could see. "Is this it?" Pluto asked.

Snowy looked at the Emerald. "Any brighter," he said, "and it would probably blind us."

"So where is it?" Blade asked. Everyone looked all around them, but no one could see anything that could lead to another Chaos Emerald.

Suddenly, Pluto nearly shouted, "There!" she pointed to one of the hills surrounding them; a blue glow was coming from behind it. Everyone wasted no time in heading toward that hill. But as Snowy and Pluto were anxious to get the Emerald, Blade noticed something; the glow was becoming brighter, more so than it would by just moving towards it.

"Guys, stop!" he shouted. The other two were quick to listen to their boss' orders. Almost immediately after they stopped, something came over the hill. It was a male Mobian: a brown-furred ferret. He wore only a belt with a holster on each side, with the hilt of a knife being visible from each one. But what really drew everyone's attention was his hand, which held the blue Chaos Emerald, shining almost as brightly as the one Snowy had.

"Well, well, well," he said in a smooth tone, "if it isn't my old friend Bladetail."

"Knife," Blade said, trying to contain his emotions. "I thought I'd never see you again. Why'd you have to spoil that?"

"You know this guy?" Snowy asked.

Blade sneered. "He was my partner during my… less than glorious years as a thief. Until our last heist…" He turned to the ferret. "…When you stabbed me in the back."

"You seem to be confused, my old friend," Knife said, still talking as though in casual conversation. "I did not stab you in the back. I stabbed you in the ankle." ("That would explain a bit," Pluto whispered to Snowy.) "The cops were on our tail," Knife explained, "and we needed a diversion."

"You needed one, you mean," Blade responded, his anger becoming more evident. "As soon as I was down, you left me at their mercy. Would have been worse if they didn't offer me leniency for testifying in court."

"Yes, I saw the news reports for that," Knife said. "'Thief Bladetail receives fewer years for giving court associate's name.' And you call me a backstabber."

"I certainly couldn't call you a friend," Blade returned. "Why do you think I got out of the thieving business?"

"Not the speed demon you once were?" Knife asked with feigned innocence. "Lucky for you, no one was able to find me. I had the feeling you'd blab long before the first day of the trial."

"_I_ found you," Blade said. "And that Chaos Emerald to boot."

"Ah, yes," Knife said, holding the gem in front of him. "Magnificent, isn't it? And very pricey. Just imagine how rich I'll be once I sell all seven to the highest bidder."

"Sorry," Snowy said, "but we have our own plans for those Emeralds."

"Hmm," Knife pondered. "And here I was hoping we'd all be friends. Well, if you want this gem…" He held it up for them to see, and then placed it in the pouch he carried. "…Come get it."

Snowy jumped toward Knife first. He formed a large icicle and held it in his hands like a melee weapon. But Knife, with agile movements, grabbed one of the knives at his hip and held it up to block the icicle as it came down. Blade, meanwhile, was able to approach Knife from the side and swung his tail at him. But the ferret took the other knife and blocked Blade just as easily.

"You disappoint me, Bladetail," Knife said. "You've gotten so slow, I could see that coming from a mile away. Even if I didn't, I know you too well; that was one of the oldest tricks in our book."

"True," Blade said as he struggled against Knife's defense. "But there is one little thing you forgot: there were only two of us involved." Suddenly, a shout was heard from behind Knife. The ferret turned his head to find Pluto spinning her moon scythes as she fell towards him. Knife immediately summoned enough strength to push both of his opponents away from him, turning to the third almost instantly after. He held his knives above him, causing them to connect with Pluto's scythes. Throwing her was no problem after that, given her light weight and airborne position.

Pluto collapsed next to her friends just as they were getting up. "This isn't going too well," she groaned.

"And I haven't even shown you the best part yet," Knife said. He brought the blades of both knives together and ran them along the edges, causing sparks to fly out. Suddenly, these sparks became a small fireball, which started growing bigger. "That's right," he said as the others looked in surprise. "Bladetail's not the only one with elemental kinesis. But unlike him, my power becomes readily available at any time."

Suddenly, the fireball became a huge stream that shot out at the team. Everyone quickly moved out of the way. Knife ground the blades again, producing more fireballs. As he aimed them, Pluto jumped out with her scythes whipped out in front of her. The fireballs flew out, but Pluto managed to block most of them with expert movements. However, Blade and Snowy could only bob and weave to avoid any flames Pluto may have missed.

"What's the matter, Bladetail?" Knife said. "Can't take the heat?"

"Not without a little water," Blade whispered to himself.

"Ugh!" Snowy grunted. Blade turned to him, thinking he might have gotten hit; instead, however, he held his fist up to his forehead. "I'm such an idiot," Snowy continued. "Blade, catch!" He threw the icicle weapon he had formed earlier at Blade. The rat held up his hands and the icicle stopped in front of him in midair. The ice started to shrink, being slowly replaced by water until an orb the size of his fist was formed.

Blade immediately turned toward Knife and, after waiting a bit, made a throwing motion with his hand, the water orb following his quiet command. Blade kept his hand out and the orb started shifting its shape to appear bigger. The water passed through the flames Knife had ready, dousing them, and knocked Knife himself on his back.

Knife was about to get back up when two yellow blades appeared around his neck. He looked up and saw Pluto, holding the scythes with a mischievous look on her face. "A word to the not-so-wise," she said: "Don't move."

Blade limped toward Knife and slashed his tail across Knife's belt, lopping off and scooping up the pouch with the Chaos Emerald inside it. He threw the pouch to Snowy, who caught it and took out the Emerald. The gem had all but stopped glowing, being in close enough proximity to the Emerald Snowy already had.

Pluto jumped off Knife and returned her scythes to their original state. Blade glared at the ferret. "Now get out of my sight," Blade said, "before I suddenly decide to feel less generous."

Knife stood up, never taking his eyes off Blade. "This isn't over," he said as he ran from them.

Snowy took out their original Chaos Emerald and held it next to the one the just gained. "Looking good, guys," he said. "I think if we find enough, we'll be able to look for the others without much trouble."

"So do we have any more ideas?" Blade asked.

"Actually," Pluto started, "when we were busting up some bots a ways back, I heard one of them talking about redeployment, or something like that."

"So we're still going with our Eggman theory," Blade said exasperated. "Okay, Pluto, where'd that bot say they'd go?"

* * *

**Team Lineup: Speed: Snowy the Owl Power Bladetail "Blade" the Rat Flight: Pluto Highway**

* * *

**Just one more team to go folks. For this, however, I will need to ask for the writers behind Alice "Ann" the Hedgehog and Lenna-Ray the Echidna resend that info via PM. I can still recall some of the information, but a backup certainly wouldn't hurt.**

**Also, I apologize to Snowy's creator for the added detail of him being Babylonian. It's just that I couldn't have two birds (the other being Glide) with only one of them having wings.**

**Until next time, folks.**

**This is CF signing out.**


	5. Team Sorority: Garden Scape

**Finally got this in. I told myself I would finish this before a weekend's worth of homework.**

**You know, I have got to be the biggest hypocrite in the history of FanFiction. I asked for originality on these characters, and what do I do? I create the most unoriginal team setup EVER! But to be fair, I didn't catch it until _after_ I made the team, and by the time I figured it out, I had lost everything. (Yeah, FF admins, we'll be having a talk about that.) On that note...**

**Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog is not in any way owned by me. The only thing I own that's Sonic related is the 3DS Virtual Console edition of _Triple Trouble._ And, really, that doesn't count.**

**Level Theme: Spagonia Rooftop Run (Day) (Sonic Unleashed)**

* * *

**Team Sorority—Garden Scape**

It was nighttime, almost three in the morning, at Soleanna Academy, one of the more prestigious high schools on Mobius. But for one of the female students as she lay awake on her bed, earbuds in her ears, the night was merely some time to herself.

Alice was a brown-colored hedgehog. Her quills hung down on the back and sides of her head like hair. There was nothing too spectacular about her clothes, as just about any girl could have worn them. But she did have one accessory that did seem out of place: a scepter was propped against the side of the bed, very ornate with an orb resting on top.

Alice was singing in a whisper to the song playing on her iPod.

"_Kakome, kakome,_

_nigerarenu you ni._

_Kakome, kakome,_

_nani shite asobu no?"_

Suddenly, she heard a chirping sound, distracting her from the lyrics. She pressed the pause button and sat up on the bed. She turned to the source of the chirp: a small, golden-brown-colored chao staring out her dorm window with a worried expression on her face.

"Alexica?" Alice said. She stood up and walked toward the chao. "Is everything all right?" The chao suddenly started chirping like crazy. "Alexica, calm down." Alice said. "I can't understand what you're trying to tell me if you get all jumpy like this." Alexica stopped and took a deep breath while Alice went back to the bed and picked up her scepter. She held it between her and the chao and closed her eyes. The orb started glowing and eventually, so did the two in the room.

Soon the glowing stopped, the two stood still for a moment. Finally, Alexica hovered to Alice and hugged her, tears in her eyes. "Don't worry, little friend," Alice said. "We'll find out what's going on. Besides," she added with a thoughtful look, "our sisters did want to do something exciting for spring break."

* * *

Morning came and Alice was already in the kitchen making coffee, with Alexica hovering around her. Soon, a third occupant entered the room: she was a fox, green in color. She wore clothing similar to Alice and had some of her hair let down over her eye. The most unique feature about her, though, was the fact that she had two tails. (Unique for the student body, anyway. It was not lost on anyone that she bore an almost uncanny resemblance to another famous fox.)

"Good morning, Bangs," Alice said. Alice learned long ago to refer to Bangs by her nickname as opposed to Janice, which she hated because it was "too normal."

"Hey, Ana," Bangs replied, using Alice's nickname. "What's up?"

"Not much," Alice said. "Where's Lenna-Ray?"

Suddenly, a loud whooping sound came from one of the rooms. "Right there," Bangs said. The door to that room slammed open, revealing an echidna with mostly black fur and red highlights on her quills.

"All right!" she nearly shouted. "Spring break is finally here!"

"You're excited, huh?" Bangs said as Lenna-Ray sat down at the table.

"Who wouldn't be?" Lenna-Ray replied. "After a long quarter of classes, I'm ready for action!"

"Yeah, I can see that," Bangs said. "Soleanna's great and all, but I want to see some new places before the break is over."

"Actually," Alice spoke up, "I may have an idea that will satisfy both desires. I have to warn you, though, it likely won't all be fun and games."

Bangs and Lenna-Ray turned to each other for a couple seconds with confused glances. "Well," Lenna-Ray started, "before we reject your idea, we might as well hear it."

"Last night," Alice began, "Alexica started feeling restless."

"Were you listening to those songs of yours?" Lenna-Ray asked. "That might have had something to do with it."

"No, that wasn't it," Alice answered matter-of-factly. "Alexica has a strong spiritual connection with her fellow chao. And right now, something seems to be happening to them."

"What kind of 'something'?" Bangs asked.

"I'm not sure," Alice answered. "All Alexica can feel is sadness, fear, uncertainty." The chao just floated there with her head down and sighed.

The other two thought for a second and Lenna-Ray decided to speak up. "Remember what I said about rejecting your idea? I take it back."

"Count me in, too," Bangs said. "Can't let anything happen to those cute little chao." Alexica started cheering at this. "So, when do we leave?" Bangs asked.

"How soon can you be ready?" Alice replied with a smile.

* * *

It didn't take long for the other girls to get ready, but Alice still had to find their first location. She was meditating, scepter in hands, with Alexica for almost a full hour. Finally, the scepter started glowing. Lenna-Ray and Bangs got close to Alice just as the glow intensified. When it stopped, everyone had vanished from the room.

Everyone felt their feet hit solid ground again after a few seconds. They looked around and saw a wide sea of green.

"Where are we?" Lenna-Ray asked.

"We are in the Garden-Scape," Alice said as she stood up. "The plan is simple," she continued: "Just follow Alexica. She'll lead us to where we have to go." Alexica scanned the area for a moment before chirping and pointing toward something in the distance.

"That way?" Bangs asked. Alexica nodded. "Then let's get going."

Alexica flew ahead in front of them, with Alice following closely. The other girls were a short distance behind. After running for a while, Alexica stopped, causing the others to do the same.

"What's wrong, Alexica?" Alice asked. The chao chirped and pointed in front of them. They all saw several spherical robots wandering around the area.

"Eggman's robots?" Alice asked. "What are they doing here?"

"You really need to watch the news, Ana," Bangs replied. "Eggman's been active for a while now. It's getting to the point that some are starting to worry."

"Now what?" Lenna-Ray asked. "We can't get past them without them noticing. I can probably handle some of them, but you two might be in trouble."

"Are you forgetting what I can do?" Alice asked, waving her scepter.

"Okay, fine," Lenna-Ray conceded. "But what about Bangs?"

"I've got a little trick up my sleeve," Bangs said with a smirk.

"If we're all in agreement, then…" Alice said as she stood up. She ran toward the robots and held her scepter to her side. The scepter vanished and was replaced with a white sword, which she slashed across the group of bots before they had a chance to see her. Those that weren't hit aimed their weapons toward her, but they were immediately attacked.

Lenna-Ray, being an echidna, was naturally strong and even had her species signature spiked knuckles. Both traits combined gave massive damage to any robots she punched. Bangs' tactics were a little more unique; as she neared the robots, she pulled out a plastic container and a paintbrush. She popped the lid open, dipped the brush inside, and pulled it out as she ran past several robots, leaving behind a trail of rainbow-hued paint. The paint seemed to burn through the robots' chassis to the inner circuitry, causing it to fall over.

"Um, Bangs?" Lenna-Ray asked nervously. "What is that stuff?"

"You know how I'm an art student?" Bangs replied. "Well, I tried making my own variety of rainbow-colored paint. But it turns out I'm not very good at chemistry. The only things this stuff doesn't eat through is plastic and the brush bristles."

"Could we have a little less chatter?" Alice asked as she thrust her sword against another bot. "There are still plenty of robots here."

"Right, sorry," Bangs said before whipping out her paintbrush again. The girls were successful in destroying all the robots. Everyone inspected the wreckage.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Lenna-Ray said.

"My thoughts exactly," Alice agreed. "If Alexica's senses led us here…"

"…while Eggman's walking junk piles are in the area…" Bangs added.

"…then we need to find that chao as soon as possible." Alice finished. Alexica pointed the way for them once again and everyone was off.

Soon, the girls came to a large lake. They saw that several rocks were poking out of the water's surface. "Bangs," Alice said, "think you can get us across?"

"Just hang on tight," Bangs replied. She started spinning her tails and hovered over Alice, picking her up, before going over Lenna-Ray, who grabbed Alice's feet. Bangs then took off from the edge of the lake, flying over the water until they reached the first rock.

But just as they were about to take off again, Alexica started chirping worriedly. Everyone looked and saw more robots flying their way.

"I'll handle this," Alice said. She held out her hand and her scepter materialized in it. She let go of Bangs and fell onto the rock platform. As she landed, however, she stumbled a little, nearly falling over.

"You all right?" Lenna-Ray asked.

"I'll be fine," Alice said. "Must have just landed wrong." She turned to the robots and held her scepter toward them. She thrust it forward like something was to come out of it.

But nothing happened for a while. Alice looked at her scepter curiously and thrust it forward again. Still nothing happened, and the robots were coming closer.

"What wrong, Ana?" Bangs asked.

"I'm not sure, I—" Alice stopped and looked at the rock she stood on. "Magite," she whispered. The other girls gave her a confused look. "This rock must be magite," Alice clarified. "As long as I'm touching it, it'll sap my magic power."

"Then let's get you off it," Lenna-Ray said. She picked Alice up and threw her at the robots. Alice landed on one of them, causing them all to stop. The robots hovering around the one Alice landed on trained their sights on her.

Bangs saw this and, without saying a word, picked up Lenna-Ray and twirled end-over-end, throwing Lenna-Ray toward the bots. She landed with a punch to one of the bots, causing it to explode. Alice, now with her strength back, pointed her scepter at another robot. Mysterious white energy shot out of the orb and hit the robot. The girls repeated their attacks until the only robot left was the one Alice was standing on. Alice turned her scepter toward that bot and blasted it. Bangs came flying in and grabbed her before she could hit the water. Lenna-Ray landed on the nearest rock under the others to keep Alice from touching it again.

"That was fun," Lenna-Ray said.

"Let's just keep moving," Alice said. "I don't feel too safe around this magite." Bangs nodded and flew toward the end of the lake.

As soon as they were on the shore, Alexica started chirping excitedly. "I think we're getting close." Alice said. Everyone ran after the chao.

However, they soon caught sight of several more robots in front of them. Alice's scepter disappeared, being replaced by her sword, and Bangs held her paintbrush ready. Lenna-Ray ran up to both of her friends, picked them up, and tossed them at the wave. Alice's sword was the first to strike, slicing clean through a robot's body. Bangs' paint took out another bot and Lenna-Ray punched its lifeless form into several of its comrades.

"Suddenly, I have an even worse feeling about this," Lenna-Ray said. "I mean, these bots just keep coming."

"If we're going to save that chao," Alice said, "we need to be quick. Stand back, sisters." Her sword swapped out with her scepter, which started glowing. A white tornado appeared around her. She ran along the inside until she started moving pretty fast. Her tools swapped again as the wind petered out, and, using her speed, she held her sword out against the robots, destroying them by just passing by them.

Soon, all the bots were destroyed. Alice immediately ran forward, just barely waiting for Alexica. She started so suddenly that the others were far behind her by the time they noticed her.

Alice and Alexica kept running until they caught sight of something very disturbing; a cage sat on the grass, and a strange device was placed on top of it. Inside the cage was the chao they had been looking for; it was hovering around the cage, stopping on every side as if trying to get the bars to open.

Lenna-Ray and Bangs finally caught up with Alice and Alexica. They too saw the caged chao. "Aw," Bangs said. "The poor thing."

"Then let's get it out," Lenna-Ray said. Without even waiting for the others, she ran up to the cage with a fist ready.

But she was suddenly stopped by a strong punch with knocked her sideways. The other girls cried out her name in concern. Lenna-Ray got up and look at her assailant: it was another robot, but this one looked different. It was more barrel-shaped as opposed to looking like a sphere. Its eyes were on the middle of its body, and it had hands that were as big as Lenna-Ray's head. It had no legs, instead hovering above the ground.

"What the heck?" Lenna-Ray wondered aloud.

"Designation: E-100, codenamed Alpha," the robot intoned. "Mission: Keep subject chao contained in holding cell."

"Hey," Bangs said. "I recognize that thing; that was the bot that was seen during the Station Square thing a few years ago."

"Guess Eggman still keeps this one around for guard duty," Alice mused.

"Well guard this!" Lenna-Ray shouted. She punched the robot and it flew backward. "Now we're even," she said.

"Analysis: Interferers appear to be hostile." Alpha continued. "Suggestion: Retaliate." It floated back toward Lenna-Ray and held its fists out again. Before it could land a punch, though, Alice can running in, with her sword striking its chassis. Unfortunately, the sword only bounced off, merely causing Alpha to stop and investigate.

"Well, that didn't work," Alice said. Her sword disappeared from her hand and a new object appeared in its place: a glowing, white baseball bat.

"A bat?" Lenna-Ray asked in disbelief.

"What do you want from the school athlete?" Alice asked. "A high-caliber laser?" Alpha started charging at Alice. She quickly swung her bat at the robot. The bat connected and Alpha was forced toward Lenna-Ray. "Besides, you can't argue with the results."

Lenna-Ray punched Alpha just as it came to her, not giving it a chance to strike. "Except nothing we do can break this thing," she said as the robot bounced back toward Alice.

Alice swung her bat at the robot again. "Good point. Bangs!" she called out. "We could use some help here!"

"Just keep him still," Bangs said as she pulled out her paint canister. Lenna-Ray punched Alpha toward Alice again, and Alice swung her bat, this time toward Bangs. The robot stopped moving and looked at Bangs.

"Analysis: Unknown substance detected," it said.

"Here, then," Bangs replied. "Let me give you a sample." She swiped her brush, wet with paint, at Alpha.

"Warning: corrosive substance detected," it said frantically. "Warning: Armor plating compromised." A large hole was left on Alpha's armor, right down to the circuitry.

"Hey, Ana!" Bangs shouted. "Think you can hit that?" Alice said nothing, instead replacing her bat with her scepter and firing a beam of light that zigzagged into the hole.

"Warning: Unknown energy detected. Warning: Energy interfering with systems. Warning! Warning! Warni— Warn— War—!"

"Oh, just shut up!" Lenna-Ray almost shouted as she ran to Alpha and punched upward, sending the robot above them. Alpha could only try to repeat his speech until he exploded, leaving several robotic parts around the area.

"Eggman'll have a tough time putting that back together," Lenna-Ray said.

"Forget the robot," Alice said. "We still have a chao to save."

"Already on it," Bangs replied. She was already at the cage, brushing along the bars. The paint dissolved the bars and they fell to the ground, leaving an opening for the chao to escape.

The chao flew out of the cage and chirped happily. Alexica flew to it and the two held hands and hovered in a circle. After a while, the two stopped and the chao flew away, waving goodbye to its saviors.

"Aw," Lenna-Ray said at last, "that was so cute. Wish I got a picture of that."

"Portrait or wallet size?" Bangs asked as she waved a small digital camera in her hands.

"At any rate," Alice said, "our work is just beginning. That chao was only one of many."

"_How_ many?" Lenna-Ray asked.

"I don't know," Alice replied. "But with each chao we save, Alexica's concentration should be put more at ease. We'll be able to locate the next chao soon. Alexica." She turned to her friend and sat down, meditating. Alexica hovered in front of her and relaxed as well.

* * *

**Team Lineup:  
Speed: Alice "Ana" the Hedgehog  
Power: Lenna-Ray the Echidna  
Flight: Janice "Bangs" Cahill**

**You see? Look at that lineup and tell me you don't see something familiar.**

**And now some apologies: To Alice's creator, part of this chapter was already written before your PM got to me, so if she seems out of character, that's why. In the end, I figured it still worked. Also, to Lenna-Ray's creator. As of now, I still don't have your info. If this isn't how you saw the character, I really apologize for this one, possibly more than the Alice thing.**

**The song used in the opening scene is called _Kakome, Kakome _(Japanese for _Circle You, Circle You_), which I DO NOT RECOMMEND! IF YOU VALUE YOUR SLEEP, YOU WILL NOT TRY TO FIND THE MUSIC VIDEO FOR THIS SONG! ESPECIALLY AT NIGHT! (seriously, I didn't even make it halfway through the song) The only reason I put it in here was because it was brought up in Alice's original character sheet as one of her favorites.**

**Okay, now that I've gotten in my PSA for the day...**

**This is CF signing out.**


	6. Team Hunters: Slots Avenue

**Sorry for taking so long on this, guys, but I have school , and I'm working extra hours over break, I'm lucky I could find time to even work on this. But it's here now, so maybe that'll hold you off for a bit.**

**Also, these next chapters introduce something I'm sure you've wanted to see for a while. Stay tuned.**

**Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog is property of SEGA, although certain fans might have a hard time believing they're the right guys for the job (just my little anti-Sonic fanboy rant).**

**Level Theme: Digital Circuit (Shadow the Hedgehog)**

* * *

**Team Hunters—Slots Avenue**

Night had fallen by the time everyone got to their next destination. According to Pluto, the robot she overheard mentioned Slots Avenue, one of Mobius' many gambling resorts.

"I don't see anything," Blade said. "No robots, no Eggman, not even a hunk of scrap metal."

"Maybe Eggman isn't here," Snowy said, "but something definitely is." He held the red Emerald in his hand; it was glowing faintly. "The next Emerald has to be around here somewhere."

Pluto shot Blade a confident look. "Okay, fine," Blade said. "There's still the problem of getting there. This place is a maze."

"So?" Pluto said. "All we have to do is just go as far as we can in one general direction. We're bound to find something."

"Then let's get going," Snowy said. He ran into the park, holding the Emerald in front of him. Pluto and Blade followed behind.

The path they followed was confusing, to say the least. Although they tried to stay in a generally straight direction, the complicated roadways disoriented them: not many roads stayed straight, several cut off and continued at different elevations, and everything looked the same.

After a while, they started to wonder if they were even making any progress; the Emerald didn't seem to be glowing any brighter. However, they soon saw several robots like the ones back at the Garden-Scape.

"Well, that's both good and bad," Snowy said.

"How?" Blade asked.

"Good because we know we're getting somewhere," Snowy replied. "Bad because these guys won't let us through."

"And that's gonna stop us?" Pluto said. She snapped her moon seat apart and charged toward the robots. Snowy and Blade also moved in. Pluto, having started first, cut through her targets with ease. She barely left any for Blade and Snowy, but that didn't mean they were completely off the hook; several robots swerved away from Pluto and charged for them instead. Snowy struck from long distance with his icicles while Blade slashed his tail against any that got in closer.

Soon, the robots were little more than chunks of metal lying on the ground. "Well, that was fun," Snowy said.

"We gotta keep moving," Blade said. He and the others continued down the winding path.

Eventually, they reached an archway blocked by two robots. "Only two?" Snowy asked. "Eggman's either getting senile, or there's just too much space for not enough robots."

"Doesn't matter," Blade replied. "If we can't get past them, we might not get to the next Emerald in time."

"In time for what?" Snowy asked.

"Knife," Blade answered. "I know him too well; he won't give up just because he lost one Emerald. In fact, he may even think of what we did as a minor setback."

"How about we just stop talking," Pluto said, almost startling the others, "and just take these guys out? Yeesh. A girl's gotta do everything, huh?" She floated in front of them and held out her hand, revealing a bracelet with a star-shaped charm on it. Suddenly, two energy stars burst out of it, blasting both robots and utterly destroying them. "Oh yeah," she said, "I do so love the nightlife." Snowy looked at her with consideration.

"Whatever," Blade said, banishing all other thought from their minds, "let's just get going." They passed the arch, but immediately stopped when they noticed what was below them: Just a thick glass over a neon platform that tilted downward. They looked around them and saw similar glass surrounding them, almost like a glass balcony.

"Huh, nice view," Pluto said.

"This can't be right," Blade whispered.

"So we took a wrong turn," Snowy said. "Let's just head back and—"

"No, I mean, this window shouldn't even be here," Blade replied. "Eggman must have had those bots put this here. This was supposed to lead to one of the attractions here. You fall down to that platform, ride along the track, and, if you're lucky, you can move further along in the park."

"And you would know this how?" Pluto asked suspiciously.

"Knife and I had some, uh, previous business ventures here," Blade answered. He looked at the glass floor. "I think I have an idea. Snowy, I'll need some water."

Snowy didn't ask what his friend was planning as several icicles appeared in front of him. Blade held his hand out and the icicles floated to him. The ice melted into water and lowered onto the floor, spreading out. Blade squeezed his hand into a fist and the water froze again, becoming a sheet of ice.

"Impressive," Pluto said dismissively.

"That's only part of it," Blade replied. "Snowy, this may hurt." Before Snowy had the chance to say anything, Blade picked him up with his tail, jumped up, and threw him down. The frozen glass shattered instantly. Snowy fell through the shards with Blade following him. They both landed on the tilted platform and, tucking themselves into balls, and began rolling down.

Meanwhile, Pluto just hovered outside the glass barrier. "Wow, guys," she said, "that looks like fun, but I'll just go on ahead, if that's alright with you." She started moving her moon seat forward, but stopped when she noticed a small, faint glow coming from around her, but particularly below her. "Or not," she sighed. "I hate when this happens." Her seat glowed one last time before retreating into her necklace. She fell down and joined her friends on the ride.

Everyone rolled down the ramp and into a track. The track made several complicated twists and turns. Even with their experience, it was all everyone could do to keep from feeling dizzy, not from the spinning, but from the sudden changes in direction.

Soon, Blade saw the track split into three. "Pluto! Snowy! Lean to either side!" Neither one argued, and when the split came, everyone was on a different track. After several more twists and turns, Snowy felt himself land on something. He looked and saw himself in a bowl-shaped platform. He then heard something to his right and saw Pluto had landed in a similar platform. They both looked behind them, finding a rather large-scale version of a slot machine: the left and right reels had both stopped on cherries, and the center reel was still going.

Before they could wonder where Blade was, Pluto saw him coming off the track and heading for the middle platform. He landed and the remaining reel stopped, also on cherries.

"Get ready, guys," Blade said. The others barely had time to wonder what he was talking about before the platforms suddenly launched them all into the air. Everyone landed on an individual track, all of which merged into one that stopped on another part of the road. Everyone uncurled and stood up. Pluto and Snowy looked a little disoriented, but none the worse for wear. Blade, meanwhile, who was more stable than his companions, was at a ring dispensing machine. He reached into it and pulled out fifteen rings. "Had to be cherries," he said to himself, almost disappointed.

"That's what this was about?" Pluto asked. "Just getting some more rings?"

"Not quite," Blade answered. "If we had lost that game, we would have had to take the long way around. And, as I stated before, time isn't exactly something we can afford with Knife out there."

"But the money is a nice bonus I'll bet," Snowy whispered to Pluto.

"Just tell me where that Emerald is," Blade said. Snowy let the matter go and took out the red Emerald.

The team ran down the pathway, again as straight as they could. They ran into several robots along the way. To Blade and Snowy, they were an annoyance. To Pluto, however, it seemed like a good chance to show off her night-exclusive powers; in addition to her energy stars, she also had brought out wrist bangles that could be expanded and thrown like discs. The bots barely stood a chance against her.

Snowy, while focused on leading the team to the Emerald, also kept a close eye on Pluto. He noticed that ever since the first robot attack, Pluto had been acting unusual. He decided not to bring this up, however, since there didn't seem to be anything worth worrying about at that point.

Soon, the team reached the end of their current path, but their didn't seem to be a place to move forward. All that was there was a sort of cannon pointing off the path.

"Now what?" Snowy asked. The Emerald was noticeably brighter now, meaning the next one was close by.

"Get in," Blade said. The others gave him confused looks. He pointed at the cannon. "This is the only way we're moving forward." Snowy just sighed and jumped into the barrel. "Let's see if I remember how to do this," Blade whispered as he aimed the cannon. He moved it slowly for a few seconds and then fired. Snowy flew out of it and disappeared into the park.

"You next," Blade said to Pluto. She said nothing as she crawled inside. Blade shifted the cannon a bit and waited before launching Pluto like Snowy before her.

Blade then turned his attention to a small control panel on the cannon. He started thinking for a bit, repositioned the cannon, and entered something into the panel. "Ten seconds. That should be enough." He crawled into the cannon and waited. Right on schedule, the cannon fired and Blade flew into the air. He soon saw his target; much like before, his friends had landed on a giant reel machine, with both of the stopped reels on Chaos Emeralds. _Perfect,_ he thought to himself, just as he landed on the last reel. It stopped on another Emerald, and just like last time, the machine launched all three of them into another track. They all rolled down until they hit the end.

By the time everyone got themselves together, Blade was already at the ring dispenser. "Looks like fifty rings," he whispered as he pocketed them. He turned to find Snowy and Pluto giving him annoyed looks. "Again, guys, time," he defended. "Snowy, how close is that Emerald?"

Snowy took out the gem and held it out; they all could see the glow was much brighter now. "A few more meters, I'd say."

"Let's just go," Pluto said. "I don't wanna deal with this greedy rat anymore." She activated her moon chair and floated off. Blade limped behind, seemingly unaware of Pluto's comment, before Snowy could even move.

"Here," Snowy said as they finally came to a large platform. A set of ruins surrounded the place.

"Where are we?" Pluto asked.

"It's an attraction," Blade answered. "When they built this place, they found these ruins and decided to make it a tourist spot, something for the curious and archeologically inclined to look at."

"I think I found something better to look at," Snowy said. He had the Emerald pointed toward another glowing object: the purple Chaos Emerald sitting on a pedestal.

Blade walked toward it, shifting his head around as he did. "Looks like Knife didn't make it," he said to himself, smiling. He reached out his hand to grab the Emerald, but before he could touch it…

"Hey!"

* * *

**Curious, folks? As I said, stay tuned.**

**This is CF signing out.**


	7. Team Adventurers: Slots Avenue

**Hey, guys, miss me? Anyway, here's the next chapter.**

**Disclaimer: How many times do I have to say this? I don't own Sonic or related materials. Can't a guy write about Sonic and not have to go through with this?**

******Level Theme: Digital Circuit (Shadow the Hedgehog)**

* * *

**Team Adventurers—Slots Avenue**

"Uh, Wiz," Lee said, "not to criticize your tracking skills, but are you sure this is the right place?" Lee looked back at the setting around them: Slots Avenue.

"I know it sounds strange," Wiz replied, "but there is a very powerful flow of magic around here."

"I guess stranger things have happened," Glide said.

"Okay," Wiz said, "our next target is that way." He pointed down one of the neon roads.

"Let's get going then," Lee said. He was about to run down the road, but he was stopped by Wiz's magic.

"What do you think you're doing?" Wiz asked.

"You just said to go this way," Lee replied. "And we all know the shortest distance between two points is a straight line."

"I never said we would go that way," Wiz argued, "just that our target was that way. Besides, your 'straight line' goes down a winding road blocked by slot machines so large that you have to go inside them and get a win just to move on."

"And your point is…?" Lee asked.

"Look at it this way," Glide said, "we pick up a few more rings than we normally would. I don't know if you noticed Wiz, but we do need to pay for our house."

"So, now that it's unanimous…" Lee said before running off.

"How is that unanimous?" Wiz whispered.

"You haven't read his dictionary, huh?" Glide responded. He and Wiz followed Lee.

They all ran in the direction Wiz indicated, but true to Wiz's word, the path was anything but straight. There were several twists and turns and sometimes there was a drop; they all found it amazing that they were up so high. Paths that ended usually had a new path somewhere nearby, just at a different height.

Glide lifted the others up to the platform that was raised over their current path. Unfortunately, that area was populated by Egg-bots.

"Well, this is interesting," Lee said. "Still believe it's just a coincidence?" he asked Wiz.

"I do find that theory to be rather lacking as of now," Wiz replied.

"Whatever," Glide said, "just get in there." He flipped around, causing his passengers to let go of him. Wiz charged in first, throwing Lee toward the bots. The robots didn't see Lee coming in time. Those that survived were quick to attack, but were held back by Wiz's magic and sliced by Glide's wings.

Soon all the robots were destroyed. "Let's get moving!" Lee said.

"Where, though?" Glide asked. "The nearest path is way up there." He pointed above them. "We can't get up there even with Wiz's magic."

"Then let's put a spring in our step," Wiz said. He went to a cage at the end of the platform. He noticed the robots had been guarding it. Using a magic empowered fist, he broke the cage; inside was a springboard.

"Well, yeah," Lee said, "if you want to do it the easy way." Lee jumped at the spring and was shot up upon impact.

"I guess he wants the easy way," Glide said. He and Wiz followed Lee's move.

Lee landed on what looked like a slide. He found he couldn't keep his balance on it and was forced to tuck himself into a ball. Through his spinning point of view, he was able to see a platform of some kind. But this platform was titled so that it was almost vertical. It looked like a pinball table.

"What is that?" Lee wondered aloud.

"That would be one of the slots I told you about," he heard Wiz yell from behind.

"Doesn't look so bad," Glide said. Everyone landed on the board and rolled around on it, still unable to uncurl with the possibility of injury present.

"Okay," Wiz yelled, "here's how this works! One of us has to get into the slot device and get a win! We do that, the door opens!" Everyone saw the large structure that jutted from the rest of the board. It was above them.

"And how do we get up there?" Lee asked.

"Yell, 'Flip!'" Wiz shouted.

"What? Wh—?" Lee started.

"Just do it!" Wiz returned.

"Flip!" Lee yelled. Almost immediately he was knocked back upward by one of the giant pinball flippers. He shot past Wiz and Glide as they tried to keep themselves bouncing around on the bumpers. "Thanks for the warning!" Lee shouted sarcastically as he passed.

"Just get a win!" Wiz returned. Lee noticed that he was above the entrance to the slot. He shifted his position so he landed directly inside.

Lee uncurled and found the buttons for the reels, which were placed in front of him; given the isometric perspective of the board, this meant he was looking at the top of the machine. Lee kept a careful eye on the timing of the spinning reels and pressed the buttons. Three gold rings lined up and he heard a dinging sound. Suddenly the door under his feet opened. Lee curled himself again and rolled downward, yelling, "Flip!" the moment he almost got to the bottom.

"The door's up there!" Wiz shouted. "Follow my lead!" He pulled himself away from the bumpers and headed downward. "Flip!" The flipper bumped him upward over the slot machine. Glide allowed himself to fall toward the flippers and bounce back up, as did Lee. Using the bumpers near the top, everyone was able to make it to the open door.

Everyone finally landed on solid ground and uncurled. Their training had minimized their dizziness. They all heard some clattering next to them. Lee turned and found a small chamber that had some rings in it. "Sweet," Lee said as he took them out in put them in his vest pocket. "I think that's twenty gold rings."

"Let's just get going," Wiz said.

The trio continued down the hall. Along the way, they found more Eggbots guarding an energy barrier. Lee, ever the energetic one, made the first move, destroying one of the robots and jumping to the next one. Wiz used his magic to throw Glide at high speed at one of the bots before attacking another one himself.

When all the robots were little more than scrap, the barrier at the end of the hall vanished. When it did, though, they were met with a slight breeze. The floor of the room was a giant fan blowing at a high speed.

"So, I assume we're supposed to ride to the top?" Glide asked.

"Ordinarily, yes," Wiz replied. He looked to the side. "That is, if we had the right equipment. It's usually hanging right next to the entrance." Lee and Glide looked everywhere, but all they saw were walls and windows.

"So… where do we find this stuff?" Lee asked.

"I guess Eggman took them so no one would go up this way," Wiz surmised, "and used the robot guards just to be safe."

"Couldn't Glide just fly us up there?" Lee suggested.

"Are you kidding?" Glide asked incredulously. He had his feathers on the lenses of his cap, focusing them. "That wind is going way too fast. My scanners put it at almost 90 miles an hour. One false move, and we've got more bruises than a fallen peach."

"At least," Wiz added. "Don't worry, though," he said, "I have an idea. When I give the word, stick close to me and run at the wind." The other two scooted toward him. "Ready?" Wiz started. "NOW!" Everyone quickly ran toward the wind tunnel. As soon as they got inside, Wiz lowered his hand, powered up, and a purple platform appeared under them. They rose up the tunnel, not too slowly, but not unbearably fast either. Suddenly, the tunnel ended and the platform was floating toward the next area of the park.

The area looked like a maze of half-pipes a little wider than the average Mobian. The end of this maze seemed pretty far off.

"So, Wiz," Lee started, "how does this next one work?"

"Don't worry," Wiz replied. "There's no door to unlock at the end of this. We can just breeze right by this one."

"Okay," Lee said slowly, "but suppose one was looking to make a few more rings."

"Like you?" Glide asked.

"Just hypothetically speaking," Lee added.

"Well, if you must know," Wiz said, "there will be a number of hoops placed along the track, each with varying design motifs. An onboard computer keeps track of what hoops you pass through. Get three consecutive matching hoops, and you win one set of rings. It's actually possible to get more than one match in one sitting."

"Oh yeah," Lee said, mostly to himself, "we'll breeze right by this one." Wiz just sighed as the platform hovered over the track.

"Well, here's our stop," Wiz said. "Get ready."

"Oh, I'm ready," Lee said. "I'm so re—aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" Suddenly, the platform vanished and all three dropped onto the track, curling into balls once again for protection.

"He sure wasn't ready for that," Glide said, trying not to chuckle.

As they rolled down the twists and turns of the track, Lee was the only one who made any conscious effort to get a match of three. Wiz and Glide just rolled along the track, trying to keep from going too far to one side. Still, they each would manage to get a successful match accidentally. Lee, predictability, managed to get three matches.

Finally, they all rolled off the track. When they uncurled, they heard some clinking in the tray next to them. Lee went to get the rings and was surprised by the large number.

"Must have been those Chaos Emeralds I went through," he said as he pocketed the rings.

"Come on," Wiz said, "we're getting close." He led the others down the road, which was just a long stretch.

They finally stopped when they saw something very interesting; ruins that looked similar to the ruins at Garden Scape, except for the signposts for tourists.

"Okay," Lee said, "I'll admit it; maybe you weren't too far off after all."

"Quiet!" Wiz said suddenly and quietly. He held his hand across Lee's face for added measure. "Someone's here." They moved toward one of the barriers, where they would be out of sight. Soon, they all saw three strangers.

* * *

**Starting to see what's going on here? I'm working on the next part now, and I'll have it in soon (so, about a month or so.)**

**This is CF signing out.**


	8. Battle: Team Hunters vs Team Adventurers

**You know, when I said this would take a month, I kinda meant it as a joke. But apparently, life likes to play jokes on me. Go figure. Anyway, the moment you've all been waiting for.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. I mean, do you know how much responisibility that creates? Too much for me.**

**Level Theme: Rail Canyon (Sonic Heroes)**

* * *

**Team Hunters vs. Team Adventurers**

"Who are they?" Glide asked. Everyone could get a better view of the strangers now: a rat, an owl, and a lemur.

"Not sure," Wiz said. "They don't look like tourists, though. I mean, one of them looks Babylonian; you don't see too much of them around. And that lemur sitting on a moon? Definitely not normal."

"Hey, guys," Lee said. He was off a short distance, though still outside the ring of stones. The others went to him while trying not to be noticed. When they reached him, Lee pointed into the ruins. "Check it out."

They both looked and saw a shining object, purple in color. It looked like a diamond.

Wiz started, "Is that a…?"

"Chaos Emerald," Glide finished. He had his goggles over his eyes. "The physical structure matches, and the power levels are off the charts."

"Maybe that's what they're here for," Lee suggested.

"It's more than possible," Wiz replied. "But for what?" They all saw the rat move toward the Emerald. "But we better find out."

"You think this is what's been going on?" Glide asked.

"Too many coincidences for my taste," Wiz admitted. "But let's go about this very calmly. No sense in starting any unnecessary conflict."

"Speak for yourself," Lee said. "Anyone messes with a Chaos Emerald that we don't know about, even _I_ don't want to risk it."

"That's just it, though," Wiz said; "We don't know."

* * *

Blade walked toward the Emerald, shifting his head around as he did. "Looks like Knife didn't make it," he said to himself, smiling. He reached out his hand to grab it, but before he could touch it…

"Hey!" Blade turned to find three other Mobians at the border of the ruins.

"Who are you guys?" Snowy asked.

"The name's Wiz," the wolf said. "This is Lee," he motioned to the raccoon, "and Glide," and again to the cardinal. "Who might you be?"

Blade thought about the situation he and his team found themselves in. "Call me Blade. That's Snowy and Pluto."

"So what do you think you're doing with that Emerald?" Lee asked.

"Ah, I see where this is going," Blade said. "Look, we've got no quarrel with you guys, so I'm sure we can be reasonable about this."

"Blade, are you sure about this?" Snowy asked quietly.

"Look, if it were Knife, I wouldn't hesitate," Blade replied. "But we don't know a darn thing these guys."

"All we want to know is what you're planning on doing with that Emerald," Wiz said. "Give us a good answer, and this will all be as uneventful as a vapor in the wind."

Blade thought for a quick second and said, "Treasure hunting, my friend. Nothing more."

Wiz thought about this answer, but it was Glide who spoke up. "I don't know. Even if that is the truth, I make it a point not to trust treasure hunters. They're too much like Lee here; arrogant, risk takers, and they never think about the consequences of their actions." ("Yeah, I love you too," Lee said in a low voice.)

"I can assure you—" Blade started.

"Forget it, they're not gonna listen," Pluto suddenly interrupted. She separated the two halves of her moon seat, creating the scythes, causing the visitors to gasp in surprise. "Let's just take them out right here, RIGHT NOW!" She jumped and twirled around, heading for the newcomers. She was stopped just in time by Lee's expert moves with his staff.

"I was afraid of this," Snowy whispered. He moved toward the two, but Glide suddenly flew into him, knocking him back with a swipe of his wings.

"Back off, buddy," he said. Before anything else could happen, however, Glide found himself just a few inches away from a spiked tail.

"This might be just me," Blade said, "but that was uncalled for."

"You're right," Wiz said. He quickly shot a hand up and blasted Blade back with a wave of magic. "It's just you. I mean, considering one of your friends just became Jacquelyn the Ripper, I think we're entitled to a little self-defense."

Blade grunted as he got up. "I really, _really_ hate magic." He stood up and faced Wiz. "So, this is how it's gonna be, huh?"

"Probably," Wiz said. He lobbed a shot at the rat. Blade quickly turned around and swiped his tail at the oncoming magic. The energy struck and exploded, but Blade was still standing.

"How did you do that?" Wiz asked.

"These blades have been with me for so long," Blade answered, "that I've lost all sensation in my tail. And, for the record, this isn't my first time dealing with magic."

"That so?" Wiz said, intrigued. "Care to elaborate?"

"I've been around." Blade whirled around, his tail ready to connect with the wolf. Wiz held up a hand in defense, using magic to stop the tail in mid-flight and hurl Blade back.

"You may know about magic," Wiz said. "You may even know how to defend against it. But pain isn't the only thing I do."

"Good," Blade said. "For a moment, I thought this would be too easy."

Meanwhile, Lee and Pluto were trying to get past each other's weapons, almost in a dance as scythe met with staff. "Not bad, lady," Lee said. "You're almost as good as me."

"Oh, trust me, punk," Pluto sneered, "I'm much better than you." She pulled away from the attack and thrust her ring hand forward, shooting two star projectiles at Lee. Lee put the end of his staff on the ground and, using it as a pole vault, jumped over the stars and landed next to Pluto, renewing his initial attack.

"Okay, you got me there," Lee said. "All I've got is just my staff here. But I still got a few tricks up my non-existent sleeve." He ran to Pluto's side and started circling her. Without warning, he jabbed his staff into her. Pluto tried swinging her scythes in retaliation, but missed, allowing Lee to strike again.

The process kept repeating until Lee finally stopped to admire his work. Pluto seemed to be worn out, hunched over with her scythes touching the ground; she was even standing with her feet flat on the ground. She was breathing hard.

Seeing this made Lee think of a crazed madwoman and couldn't help but say, "Ah, finally the flesh reflects the madness within."

"Believe me, buster," Pluto said. "You ain't seen madness yet." She spun around and threw out her arms, releasing her bangles, which extended in size. Lee moved his staff forward and expertly caught both bracelets through the empty spaces.

"Oh!" he exclaimed. "A double ringer!" He spun his staff around, hurling both objects back at Pluto. Pluto only stopped them by blocking them with her scythes. "Eh," Lee said, "not bad, but it would have been cooler if you used your arms."

"Do you ever shut up?" Pluto asked angrily.

"What? And rob the world of my glorious voice?" Lee replied. "That would be a crime against nature."

"Nothing compared to the crime I'll probably commit by the end of this."

"And what's that?"

"Murder." Pluto said this with venom in her voice.

"Yeesh," Lee said. "And I thought Wiz was tough to break."

While this was going on, Glide and Snowy were having their own bout; actually, it mostly consisted of Snowy dodging Glide's attacks. "Any chance you could cut it out?" he asked.

"Sorry," Glide said, "but the more distracted you are, the less likely you are to try something."

"How do you know I'm even going to do anything?"

"You made a move for Lee and your lady friend there," Glide pointed out. "Forgive me if I seem overcautious as a result."

"So you always rush to conclusions?"

Glide did a quick wild take before sulking. "Okay, there are many things you could criticize me for, but you do not, I repeat, do _not_ compare me to a certain raccoon." Glide swooped down again. Snowy barely got out of the way in time.

_Okay,_ he thought, _talking it out just got harder. No choice then._ Snowy breathed out a row of icicles and fired them at Glide just as he was slowing down. Glide managed to avoid the brunt of the attack, but some of the ice clipped the ends of his feathers. Glide was taken by surprise and stopped, just in time to see another icicle coming toward him. He quickly swiped his wing, knocking it off balance.

"I'll admit, that was good," he said. "Kinda curious as to how you pulled that off. But, living with a magic wolf has taught me to just deal with the unexpected." He flew down again for another divebomb, but was caught by surprise from a sharp whack to his side. Glide crashed to the ground and saw Snowy holding a large icicle in his hands like a club.

"That was unexpected," Snowy said. "Can you deal with that?"

"Drop dead," Glide said.

"I can help with that!" Pluto shouted from a distance. ("Oh boy," Snowy whispered.)

"Well, she's sweet," Glide said. "Bittersweet."

"She's got issues," Snowy replied. Reminded of his teammates' presence, Snowy looked over at Blade. Wiz had him wrapped in a ribbon of magic energy. Blade managed to sneak his tail out and swiped at a strand, cutting it off from the rest of the stream and causing it to disappear, freeing him from Wiz's grip.

Snowy looked at the icicle in his hand. "Hey, Blade, catch!" He threw the icicle toward him. Blade saw it and shot a hand up. The icicle stopped in midair, causing Wiz to stop short of performing another spell.

"What the—?" Wiz started before the icicle started to shrink and was replaced by water. "Interesting trick," Wiz said.

"Isn't it, though?" Blade replied. Wiz lobbed another energy ball at Blade, trying to aim for the orb of water hovering next to him. The water moved to the side with a wave of the rat's hand. As soon as the energy had passed, Blade thrust his hand forward, hurling the ball of water at Wiz. The water landed in Wiz's mouth. He accidentally inhaled it and knelt down on all fours, trying to catch his breath.

"That was a cheap shot!" Glide shouted. He flew past Snowy, swiping his wing across him in the process. He landed next to Wiz. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Wiz coughed out. "Just give me sec."

"I still say that was a cheap shot," Glide said while shooting Blade a glare.

"Well, to be fair, we're close to broke right now, so 'cheap' is all we can afford," Blade quipped.

"Says the guy who made sure we stopped to hit two reels on the way here," Snowy replied.

"Just let it go," Blade said. "Right now isn't the best time to bring it up. Pluto!"

Pluto had her scythes bearing down on Lee, who was mostly successful in blocking them, when she heard Blade's call. She flipped over Lee and threw him at his teammates before joining her own.

"We gotta take these guys now," Blade said. "You two remember what happened at that one village?"

"The cannibals or the sun worshipers?" Snowy replied.

"Sun worshippers," Blade answered.

"Is that really the best idea?" Pluto asked.

"You got a better one? We need to strike before the wolf recovers. Snowy, hit it!" Snowy raised his hands above his head and breathed into them, creating several icicles that, instead of lining up like they normally did, collided with each other into a ball of ice. "Pluto, you're up!" Pluto jumped up to the ball and spun her scythes wildly at it, hacking it into shards that were smaller than the original icicles.

Wiz, who was just on the cusp of recovery, figured out what would happen and shouted, "Guys! Scatter!" Glide and Lee quickly ran in opposite directions.

"Not gonna work!" Blade said. He held his hands up and threw them down to either side. The ice shards started shooting out in all directions. Lee spun his staff in every direction he could think of while Glide was practically both dodging and blocking at the same time. Wiz summoned a small shield that protected him from much of the mini hailstorm.

The rain of ice continued for a while. When it finally stopped, the only one untouched was Wiz; despite their best efforts, Lee and Glide were struck by the hail and had become exhausted by the end. Wiz slowly stood up, lowering his shield slowly.

"You're magic can only get you so far right now," Blade said. "Three against one aren't good odds in your state. Just surrender and let us get that Chaos Emerald."

"Don't you mean _two_ to one?" Wiz replied. "I can tell. Using that much hyrdrokinetic power has left you drained. Me, on the other hand? Here's a little thing about magic I bet you didn't even know: shields are among the most efficient spells to pull off. Even the thickest I can conjure could use up to five percent of my magic energy stores at maximum. You wanna know what I was doing behind that shield? Recharging. I'm almost at full power now. Enough for this little trick. Oh, and don't count my team out just yet." Taking this as a signal, both Lee and Glide moved; Lee's staff crossed his body and Glide spread his wings out. "They may not be able to fight on their own, but who says that's the only way to fight?"

Wiz spread his hands out and charged them with magic. Lee and Glide started glowing with the same purple aura. Wiz raised his hands, causing his friends to float above the ground in the process. Finally, when Lee and Glide were far enough above the ground, Wiz slammed his hands together above his head, the palm of his left hand over the back of his right; the magic auras of both hands combined looked more solid. Suddenly, Lee and Glide zoomed around wildly.

Blade and his team didn't know what to expect, so they weren't prepared for the onslaught. The wild nature of both Mobians' movements made it hard to predict where and when they would strike. Snowy tried to form an icicle to protect himself, but he kept getting hit before he could concentrate. Pluto tried swinging her scythes, but she always seemed to miss them. Wiz's control of their movements seemed to be more deliberate than the randomness made it appear to be.

Blade was the only one having any luck. Unlike Pluto, whose weapons were in plain sight and easy to follow, Blade's tail was just barely noticeable and could strike quickly as an effective counterattack. By the time Wiz finally brought his friends back down, Blade was the only one who was relatively unharmed.

"I'll admit," Blade said, "that was good. But with that kind of power, you must be exhausted all over again."

Wiz just smirked and curled his hand into a fist, summoning more magic around it. "Do you so easily forget?" he asked. "Basic stuff like this is easier to pull off." He shifted his body so that his fist was behind him. Blade responded by brandishing his tail. The two started moving toward each other, ready to attack.

Suddenly, they were blinded by a bright light, brighter than anything they had seen throughout the park. The light was accompanied by a strange, almost melodic sound. When they could finally open their eyes, they found themselves separated by a literal wall of light. The sound kept continuing. They both looked around for the source. Wiz looked up and saw what was causing this: it looked like a humanoid made completely of light. Its appearance was reminiscent of a priest of some kind and it held an object like a fan in its hand.

The figure started glowing more brightly. This time, though, it wasn't unbearably bright; if anything, it was actually soothing. Four grunts were heard and everyone else there started getting up.

"Well, that's one way to wake up," Lee said.

"Shouldn't I be in a lot more pain?" Snowy said to himself.

"Hey, look!" Glide interjected. They all looked up and saw the figure of light above them. It started making the strange sound again.

"Is it talking?" Snowy asked.

"If it is," Pluto started, "any way we can find out what the bozo's saying?"

While not replying to Pluto, Wiz already head his hand up to his forehead. "'I am the Light Guardian, and I command you to cease your defilement of this sacred ground.'"

"Light Guardian," Glide repeated. "Like the Earth Guardian we saw back at the ruins?"

Lee spoke up. "Well, I got news for you pal; that 'defilement' isn't us. If anything, we're here looking for your defiler. Now if you don't mind, I'll just—!" He was cut short by a beam of light that was shot just in front of him.

"'Stay your words, foolish one,'" Wiz translated. "Yeah, that's what I've been saying for years, Lee. 'I mean your foolish battle. It does more harm than you realize.'"

"After what just happened," Snowy said, holding his shoulder, "I'll see that bet and raise you five."

"'A man more foolish than you all is looking to resurrect an ancient evil. You are the only ones who can put a stop to this. And while you waste time with your petty squabbles, the evil draws nearer and the world closer to its doom.'"

Everyone noticed a faint glow on one of the stone pillars. Glide went to check it out. "Hey, this one has an indent like the last one."

"'If you are to stop the evil, you must learn its secrets.'" Wiz held out his other hand and cast another Revealing Spell. The outline of a tablet, complete with ancient script appeared inside it. Glide lowered his goggles and took a picture of it. "'But be wary; my brethren who guard the other sacred lands are not happy with this turn of events. They have become vengeful and will not show mercy to any who cross their path.

"'Now, to the hunters,'" Wiz continued. The other three turned toward the Light Guardian. "'You must continue your quest for the Emeralds.'" Everyone was surprised at this, especially since the Emerald lifted from its perch and floated toward Snowy. "'These gems may be our only hope. Use them well.'" Cautiously, Snowy took the gem and placed in his pouch.

"What the heck does he mean by that?" Pluto asked.

"In any case, we've at least got three Emeralds," Blade replied. "I say we just go with it."

"'Time is short, so I will send you all to where you must go to complete your quest. Farewell.'" The area started becoming brighter once again. Everyone shielded their eyes. Eventually, the light faded, but everyone had vanished.

* * *

**Didn't see that coming, huh? At any rate, what did you think? I'll be working on improving the battle narrations as I go along.**

**Anyway, I better get working on Team Sorority (hype fuel).**

**This is CF signing out.**


End file.
